The Payoff of Panic: The Success of Gardasil

Author: Lara Endreszl

Is Gardasil the food bunker of the new millennium? Way back in 1999, you knew someone who was nervous that their bank account would be destroyed, their perishables perished, and time as they knew it wiped out at midnight on December 31st. When nothing happened you could hear the big sigh of relief, and buyers' remorse, of everyone who stocked up their homes for weeks with dried foods and bottled water. In mid-2006, a drug was approved to vaccinate young girls from the danger of the human-papillomavirus, or HPV—the main cause of cervical cancer in women—and the media went nuts.

Elizabeth Rosenthal of the International Herald Tribune states, "Although cervical cancer kills close to 300,000 women a year globally, pap smears and follow-up treatment limit the death toll in countries with good medical care." In fact, in the United States there are less than 4,000 deaths per year to cervical cancer. Elizabeth goes on to point the finger at the pharmaceutical company Merck who dreamed up this aggressive nature behind the vaccine's push.

Dr. Diane Harper, who directs the Gynecologic Cancer Prevention Research Group and is a professor of medicine at Dartmouth Medical School, investigated the clinical trial of Gardisil and thinks Merck crossed a line in its marketing campaign, "Merck lobbied...and went directly to the people—it created a sense of panic that says you have to have this vaccine now."

In developing Gardisil, Merck saw dollar signs in their future and they weren't wrong. Having already raked in between $1.4 - 1.6 billion in sales in 2008, Merck worked its magic publicity on doctors, politicians, nurses, schools, and the media to enforce the issue of cervical cancer as a needed preventative measure using Gardasil as the saving grace behind lurking HPV statistics. Doctors can gain up to $4,500 per lecture on the drug and many have been recommending it to their patients since it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in June 2006. Doctor's offices are able to bump up their profits on Gardasil by charging a per needle fee when one series usually costs $361. (Gardasil is a series of three vaccines given over a six-month time period.) But hurry, Merck warns it's only approved in women ages 11 to 26.

A year ago, I wanted to be "one less." I bought into the skateboarding thirteen year old and her concerned mother. The catchy tune snuck out of the television and into my brain where it tickled my reserves. Along with the temptation of my doctor, and already being 24, I went through with the series of treatments. Besides hurting for days afterward, my arm didn't experience any "redness or swelling at the injection site", as the commercial indicates. However, at $200 a piece, my bank account hurt worse. Thankfully, by the time the second vaccine was available, my insurance covered the bill and I didn't have to use my aching arm to write another check.

Some say the FDA acted too quickly and gave the green light too fast to the vaccine. Gardasil only covers 70 percent of cervical cancers and women still have to get regular pap tests. Gardasil's effectiveness is under question; when most new drugs take years to be approved, Merck's baby got its stamp at just six months. Gardasil only went through clinical trials for five years and data is now surfacing that the immunity to the types of cervical cancer could start to lessen in as little as three to five years. So girls who get the treatment at eleven might still be at risk during their high school years. Is the value of a dollar more important than the value of a life? If Merck doesn't know the long-term effects yet, we are left to wonder why the FDA was so quick to approve it. Would this then require vaccinated women to get re-vaccinated? I guess I'll find out at thirty, but at least now I don't have a shed full of freeze-dried ice cream.