Gardasil is Merck's $2B (sales estimate) vaccine against cervical cancer. Anyone who has young daughters (as do I ) has probably heard of it and if you have, have heard only Merck's side of the story. Ilene has uncovered the other side (by Deborah at Wall Street Weather), and it is worth reading if you have daughters, or know anyone who does.
Merck’s Gardasil: A Risky and Unneeded Vaccine
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PS: While there, check out her other stories on VIX, Choppy Markets and FNM & FRE.
2 comments:
I'm a retired clinical doc who treated a lot of women and men for genital warts over a period of years. They are a bear to have, and treatment is subpar and unpleasant. I'd say that is the major hope from this vaccine.
People need to separate out their dislike of major phamaceutical companies--which I share--from the possible good effects of this specific vaccine. Most--but not all-- of the objections to the vaccine are from people who know nothing about the diseases or their treatment.
The facts and the exact subtypes of viruses which cause cancer have been well known for several decades and confirmed many times. Those are the ones in the vaccine. The original studies showing no cervical cancer in nuns goes back 50 years or more. Thus there are a lot of proven facts.
It's like the birth control question all over again: if everyone used contraceptives or abstained--ha!-- there would be no genital warts for men or women and less cervical cancer. But we know as clearly as we are human beings that isn't going to be the case.
You can dislike big pharma and still use some of their products. I also worked in some very big and successful vaccination programs "in my yute". You can wait 75 years to see if this vaccine really worked to prevent cancer, or you can try it proactively for your young folks, My guess is it will be effective in preventing a lot of genital warts. That may be enough to justify it.
Tom D, deuxsous at WW etc.
Allan:
One easy way to evalaute this stock:
Have you had your OWN daughters get the vaccination?
JK in DC
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