September 2, 2009 – 11:33 pm
During Merck’s recent earnings call, EVP Ken Frazier touted the Gardasil push, saying he expected “sequential growth” in the vaccine’s sales “as we leverage the back-to-school season.” Second-quarter sales amounted to $268 million, down 28 percent from the same period last year and 18 percent from two years ago.But–and this is a big ‘but’–Frazier also said during that call that the 13-to-18-year-old market for Gardasil has already peaked. So despite the back-to-school campaign, Merck is looking outside that age group for any real growth in the vaccine. Frazier said the company is “firmly committed to achieving greater vaccination rates in the 19-to-26 age group.” And it’s still hoping for new indications–for boys and for women up to age 45–from the FDA.
August 16, 2009 – 11:50 am
I received an email from my ICAP associate, Christina England today. Her message explained a mystery I have been trying to solve for the past week. My site stats have indicated a large number of hits from Russian ISPs and those visitors spending time investigating my article archive. Christina noted the same site visitor anomalies and traced the traffic back to http://www.oodvrs.ru/article/index.php?id_page=47&id_article=940 and found her article about ICAP communications with the German Scientists of RKI concerning the safety of the HPV vaccines Gardasil and Cervarix. This article tracks back to our papers. It is amazing but our message has been have been translated into Russian. The word is getting out there yippee! Congrats to Christina!
Merck to buy Schering-Plough in $41 billion deal Reported by David Jolly Publ With the purchase, Merck is expanding its franchise in cardiovascular, respiratory and oncology drugs and shoring up its research pipeline, in particular with a Schering-Plough product called TRA, a promising drug designed to prevent blood clotting. In addition, Merck will benefit from the [...]
Will Open Source “SAGE” platform lead to more transperency to MERCK’s research and clinical trials process? Consumers can only hope. Of course if MERCK corporate lawyers figure out that such an open source platform may lead to a clear chain of custody of the type of information they would rather not have readily available during [...]
November 4, 2008 – 8:05 pm
Vaccine Watchdog Group Calls for Transparency WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is calling on the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to publicly release the study design, data and names of principal investigators involved in a statement this week maintaining that Gardasil vaccine is safe with no serious [...]
October 13, 2008 – 7:51 am
A Recent CNN Article lead with this headline… Gardasil® Deaths, Gardasil® Side Effects, Gardasil® Paralysis – Is the HPV Vaccine Given to Prevent Cervical Cancer Causing More Medical Problems? A vaccine designed to prevent cervical cancer is coming under fresh scrutiny amid thousands of complaints linking it to a range of health problems. Gardasil® has [...]
September 29, 2008 – 8:13 am
Those of you who are regular readers know that I think Gardasil® is the wrong solution for preventing Cervical Cancer. It is my considered opinion that Gardasil® has one purpose — it is a much needed cash cow for Merck, in their time of financial need. My attempt at “Fair and Balanced” reporting is to [...]
August 28, 2008 – 8:25 am
It is not hard to hear about Gardasil… “In television advertisements, a cast of hip people in their 20s — artists, writers and professionals — describe why they got the shots, in the language of liberation, such as, “I chose to get vaccinated because my dreams don’t include cervical cancer.” The advertisements direct viewers to [...]
About a month after being vaccinated against the cervical cancer-causing HPV virus, 13-year-old Jenny Tetlock missed the lowest hurdle in gym class, the first hint of the degenerative muscle disease that, 15 months later, has left the previously healthy teenager nearly completely paralyzed. Did the vaccine, Gardasil, cause her condition? Her father, Philip Tetlock, a psychology professor at UC-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, has embarked on an odyssey to find out whether the vaccine or random coincidence is to blame.
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