Merck

Yesterday Bill Richardson vetoed legislation that would have made Gardasil vaccination of 6 year-old girls compulsory. Here's the story :

"While everyone recognizes the benefits of this vaccine, there is insufficient time to educate parents, schools and health care providers," he said.

The measure would have taken effect June 15, requiring girls entering sixth grade this fall to be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus, or HPV, before they enter public or private school.

The bill would have allowed parents to opt out of the vaccination requirement.

Merck, the company that produces Gardasil, needed a homerun drug after the legal mess and PR nightmare of the Vioxx cases. The company lost a $235 million lawsuit for knowingly suppressing documentation about the potential lethal cardiovascular effects of Vioxx and for "tweaking" clinical studies evidence to support their false claims of safety.

The company knew as far back as 2000 the painkillers could kill people with cardiovascular problems but it took them a warning from the FDA, requests for new trials by American Heart Association, the National Stroke Association, the Arthritis Foundation and 4,000 lawsuits for the company to conduct another round of clinical trials that would further the minimum of testing they submitted to the FDA in order to get their drug approved.

On September 30, 2004 Merck finally pulled the drug off the market after the second round of trials did confirm Vioxx was not safe. In 2005 they lost the landmark Ernst v. Merck product liability case --which granted a record $253 million in damages to the plaintiff. The company's stock fell almost 8% minutes after the verdict and, given the drug accounted for 10% of the company's revenue, Merck has been losing since 2004 a record $2.5 billion annually in revenue.