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Merck's Wonderdrug?

The other day, I returned from the pharmacy aghast and stunned at the price of Gardasil, the vaccine my doctor prescribed to protect me against HPV, the cervical cancer-causing virus. My insurance covers only .5 ml of the miracle-drug (or so pharmaceutical giant Merck would call it), and it turns out I need 5 ml, which comes with it a $900 price tag.

Fuming, I turned to the Internet to see just what I was getting myself into. The shot protects patients from contracting four of the most prolific strains of HPV, two of which cause 70% of cervical cancer cases.

But according to a recent analysis by the Center for Media and Democracy's PR Watch, groups may be too quick to call for mandatory dispensation of the vaccine. Aside from pointing out Merck's less-than-spotless record — Vioxx anyone? — and noting reports of the FDA's "woefully inadequate" review of that medication, PRwatch.org also interviewed Dr. Diane Harper with the Dartmouth Medical School, who critiqued the federal government's recommendation to require all middle-school aged girls to get the vaccine.

Insurance companies are saying that VFC program is required by law to purchase this. But the problem is that the states don't have enough money allocated by VFC to purchase enough to cover their whole state's population. So if you make a mandate that your child can't enter sixth grade as a twelve-year old without having the shots, and your state only has enough to give it to 10% of the twelve-year olds, and you're the next kid in line and your family doesn't have $500, then you can’t go to school. And that is wrong.

PR Watch also cites a Bloomberg News article that even before the FDA approved Gardasil, Merck had spent $841,000 to publicize it on the Internet in the first quarter of 2006.

I'm still going to get the shot, but I'll be on my guard against Gardasil.