NVIC E-news Canadians Follow GARDASIL Money Trail
by Barbara Loe Fisher Abraham Lincoln once said “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” It is getting increasingly difficult for multi-national pharmaceutical corporations to hide the fact that they are engaging politicians from both sides of the aisle in the US, Canada and Europe to provide them with an assured, blockbuster market for new vaccines like Merck’s GARDASIL.
http://www.agoracosmop olitan.com/home/Frontpage/2007/10/29/01919.html It doesn’t seem to matter how poorly a new vaccine has been tested or how many people die or become seriously injured after it has hit the streets. Those deaths and injuries are conveniently written off by government officials as a ” coincidence” and the exploitation of the people by drug companies for profit continues without a pause.
Wall Street is doing a good job keeping us up-to- date with just how much money big pharmaceutical corporations are raking in now that Congress bowed to Big Pharma pressure and pretty much removed all liability from the business of making and selling vaccines in the 1980’s and, again after September 11, 2001, in the name of “national security” and “the greater good” and the admonition that “disease is just a plane ride away.” Mandating every new vaccine the drug industry produces and taking away all exemptions to vaccination is another money making guarantee.
Revenue predictions for Merck are that GARDASIL profits will climb from $300 million to $4 billion over the next year. Sanofi Pasteur, another mega giant vaccine maker is growing its vaccine sector by 50 percent. “It’s a great trend and I would buy Merck” advises one Wall Street guru.
http://www.thestreet.com/funds/t v-recap/10388133.html
One day enough voters will figure out that vaccinating 300 million Americans and 33 million Canadians with multiple vaccines from cradle to the grave has more to do with keeping drug companies in the money than keeping people healthy. Then the politicians, who have committed hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to financial underwrite new product rollouts for pharmaceutical companies selling vaccines while shielding them from all liability for vaccine injuries and deaths, will be looking for another job.
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The Stephen Harper Conservative minority government earlier this year made a decision to spend $300 million on a campaign to inoculate females nine to 13 against cervical cancer. Sounds like great leadership on a critical health issue doesn’t it? The problem is that the decision appears to be motivated to financially support the U.S. Big Business Pharmaceutical interests that developed the vaccine…. The American-based National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) had released in February 2007 a new analysis of the U.S. Federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) reports of serious health problems following HPV vaccination (Merck’s GARDASIL) during the last six months of 2006….Judicial Watch, a U.S. government watchdog, became concerned while noting large donations to key politicians originating from Merck…. The Toronto Star recently reported that Merck Frosst Canada Ltd hired public relations giant Hill & Knowlton to push the immunization strategies using some well-connected lobbyists….” – Paul Chen, The Canadian (October 30, 2007)
“Gardasil, the human papillomavirus vaccine from Merck, is going to be huge, Cramer and stockpickr.com’s James Altucher agreed. It’s going from about $300 million to $4 billion in revenue over the next year, and that’s just one vaccine, he said. Plus, now they’re doing late-stage trials on a hepatitis-B vaccine. “I think if you want a solid 15%, maybe 20% a year for a long time, Merck is a great bet,” Altucher said. “This is a re-energized Merck,” Cramer said. “It’s a really great Merck. It keeps going up. It keeps beating numbers, but it’s still only back to where it was a couple of years ago, so I agree with you, I think there’s more [room for it] to climb.” When Altucher pointed out Sanofi-Aventis (SNY) , where vaccine growth was 50%, Cramer said it is another company that he likes. For years, vaccines were risky, because if something went wrong, it was only a matter of time before a company had a class-action suit against it. “So the drug companies pretty much decided there was no real money in vaccines,” Cramer explained. One of the big changes the analysts didn’t pick up on is that since then, the plaintiffs’ bar has been beaten back, so the litigation risk of vaccines has declined. “It’s a great trend and I would buy Merck,” Cramer said.” – The Street.com (November 2, 2007)
Harper government irresponsibly approves HPV Vaccine that causes atrocious side-effects for young girls, including cancer
The Canadian
October 30, 2007
by Paul Chen
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The Stephen Harper Conservative minority government earlier this year made a decision to spend $300 million on a campaign to inoculate females nine to 13 against cervical cancer. Sounds like great leadership on a critical health issue doesn’t it. The problem is that the decision appears to be motivated to financially support the U.S. Big Business Pharmaceutical interests that developed the vaccine. Kathleen O’Hara in the Hamilton Spectator on 26 September 2007 referred to the vaccine programme as effort to create “more guinea pigs” for a vaccine that has many reported serious health issues.
Four provinces — Ontario, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island — have jumped on the bandwagon, making the relatively new vaccine Gardasil by Merck Frosst available for certain ages through public vaccination programs. Other provincial governments are deliberating on the matter, along with the territories.
There have been eight documented deaths that have been linked to the cervical cancer jab.
Doctors suspect the jab, which protects against a sexually transmitted human papilloma virus that causes the cancer, may be implicated in 3,461 adverse documented reactions, including paralysis and seizures.
The American-based National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) had released in February 2007 a new analysis of the U.S. Federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) reports of serious health problems following HPV vaccination (Merck’s GARDASIL) during the last six months of 2006. Out of the 385 individual GARDASIL adverse event reports made to VAERS, two-thirds required additional medical care and about one-third of all reports were for children 16-years-old and under, with nearly 25 percent of those children having received simultaneously one or more of the 18 vaccines that Merck did not study in combination with GARDASIL. NVIC is calling on the FDA and CDC to warn parents and doctors that GARDASIL should not be combined with other vaccines and that young girls should be monitored for at least 24 hours for syncopal (collapse/fainting) episodes that can be accompanied by seizure activity, as well as symptoms of tingling, numbness and loss of sensation in the fingers and limbs, all of which should be reported to VAERS immediately.
According to NVIC’s report, a majority of GARDASIL adverse event reports to VAERS involved those who suffered fever, nausea, headache or pain; 14 percent were for syncopal episodes with or without neurological signs; and 8 percent experienced tingling, numbness and loss of sensation, facial paralysis or Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Although adverse event reports to VAERS do not prove causation, they can provide an early warning sign that a new vaccine may be causing health problems that could be important. NVIC also found that there were several VAERS reports of HPV infection, genital warts and cervical lesions after GARDASIL vaccination. It is unknown if the girls were infected with HPV before being vaccinated or if GARDASIL failed to protect them. One case of HPV infection occurred in a 22-year-old girl who had participated in a Merck GARDASIL trial in 2003 when she had shown “strong conversion to all 4 vaccine types” but “tested positive for high risk HPV” in 2006, according to the VAERS report.
A lead researcher who spent 20 years developing the vaccine for humanpapilloma virus also says the HPV vaccine is not for younger girls, and that it is “silly” for states to be mandating it for them.
Not only that, she says it’s not been tested for effectiveness in younger girls, and administering the vaccine to girls as young as 9 may not even protect them at all. And, in the worst-case scenario, instead of serving to reduce the numbers of cervical cancers within 25 years, such a vaccination crusade actually could cause the numbers to go up.
“Giving it to 11-year-olds is a great big public health experiment,” said Diane M. Harper, who is a scientist, physician, professor and the director of the Gynecologic Cancer Prevention Research Group at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth Medical School in New Hampshire.
“It is silly to mandate vaccination of 11- to 12-year- old girls There also is not enough evidence gathered on side effects to know that safety is not an issue.”
Judicial Watch, a U.S. government watchdog, became concerned while noting large donations to key politicians originating from Merck. A freedom of information request from the group in May of this year discovered that during the period from June 8, 2006 — when the vaccines received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — to May 2007 there were 1,637 reports of adverse reactions to the HPV vaccine reported to the FDA.
The Toronto Star recently reported that Merck Frosst Canada Ltd hired public relations giant Hill & Knowlton to push the immunization strategies using some well-connected lobbyists: Ken Boessenkool, a former senior policy adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper; Bob Lopinski, formerly with Premier Dalton McGuinty’s office; and Jason Grier, former chief of staff to Health Minister George Smitherman.
Harper’s Conservative Government approved Merck’s HPV vaccine Gardasil in July and later announced a $300 million program to give the vaccine to girls from ages 9-13. That of course is only the beginning of what Merck likely hopes will be a much larger vaccination of all potentially sexually active women in Canada who are not already HPV infected. In August, McGuinty’s Ontario Liberals, on the advice of his Health Minister George Smitherman, announced that all Grade 8 girls will have free access to Gardasil.
The Canadian is a new socially progressive, cross cultural and not-for-profit national newspaper, with an international readership. It provides an alternative to the for-profit commercial focused media, which often censors vital information and perspective of potential interest to the diverse Canadian public, and other peoples internationally.
TheStreet.com TV Recap: Vaccines Give Merck Booster Shot
The Street.com
November 2, 2007
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Merck is (MRK) winning big with vaccines, Jim Cramer said on TheStreet.com TV’s Wall Street Confidential Web video Friday.
Cramer said the company decided to get into vaccines when everyone said there was no money in vaccines. That thinking turned out to be wrong. Becton Dickinson (BDX) and Cepheid (CPHD) also are doing well with vaccines, Cramer said.
Gardasil, the human papillomavirus vaccine from Merck, is going to be huge, Cramer and stockpickr.com’s James Altucher agreed. It’s going from about $300 million to $4 billion in revenue over the next year, and that’s just one vaccine, he said. Plus, now they’re doing late-stage trials on a hepatitis-B vaccine. “I think if you want a solid 15%, maybe 20% a year for a long time, Merck is a great bet,” Altucher said.
“This is a re-energized Merck,” Cramer said. “It’s a really great Merck. It keeps going up. It keeps beating numbers, but it’s still only back to where it was a couple of years ago, so I agree with you, I think there’s more [room for it] to climb.”
When Altucher pointed out Sanofi-Aventis (SNY) , where vaccine growth was 50%, Cramer said it is another company that he likes.
For years, vaccines were risky, because if something went wrong, it was only a matter of time before a company had a class-action suit against it. “So the drug companies pretty much decided there was no real money in vaccines,” Cramer explained. One of the big changes the analysts didn’t pick up on is that since then, the plaintiffs’ bar has been beaten back, so the litigation risk of vaccines has declined.
“It’s a great trend and I would buy Merck,” Cramer said.
At the same time, rather than vaccines, rapid diagnostics are more important to nip the illness in the bud, Cramer said. This is why Inverness Medical Innovations (IMA) , a stock that he owns for his charitable trust, Action Alerts PLUS, and has been recommending, is up another couple of points today after being up yesterday, he said.
At the time of publication, Cramer was long Inverness Medical Innovations. Jim Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com’s sites and serves as an adviser to the company’s CEO. Outside contributing columnists for TheStreet.com and RealMoney.com, including Cramer, may, from time to time, write about stocks in which they have a position. In such cases, appropriate disclosure is made.
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National Vaccine Information Center
email: news@nvic.orgvoice: 703-938-dpt3web: http://www.nvic.org NVIC E-News is a free service of the National Vaccine Information Center and is supported through membership donations.NVIC is funded through the financial support of its members and does not receive any government subsidies. Barbara Loe Fisher, President and Co- founder.Learn more about vaccines, diseases and how to protect your informed consent rights at www.nvic.org |
