Drugmaker wants law to require STD shot
Merck & Co. is helping bankroll efforts to pass state laws requiring girls as young as 11 or 12 to receive the drugmaker’s new vaccine against the sexually transmitted cervical-cancer virus.
Some conservatives and parents’-rights groups say such a requirement would encourage premarital sex and interfere with the way they raise their children, and they say Merck’s push for such laws is underhanded. But the company said its lobbying efforts have been above-board.
With at least 18 states debating whether to require Merck’s Gardasil vaccine for schoolgirls, Merck has funneled money through Women in Government, an advocacy group made up of female state legislators around the country.
A top official from Merck’s vaccine division sits on Women in Government’s business council, and many of the bills around the country have been introduced by members of Women in Government.
“Cervical cancer is of particular interest to our members because it represents the first opportunity that we have to actually eliminate a cancer,” Women in Government President Susan Crosby said.
LinkHere
Some conservatives and parents’-rights groups say such a requirement would encourage premarital sex and interfere with the way they raise their children, and they say Merck’s push for such laws is underhanded. But the company said its lobbying efforts have been above-board.
With at least 18 states debating whether to require Merck’s Gardasil vaccine for schoolgirls, Merck has funneled money through Women in Government, an advocacy group made up of female state legislators around the country.
A top official from Merck’s vaccine division sits on Women in Government’s business council, and many of the bills around the country have been introduced by members of Women in Government.
“Cervical cancer is of particular interest to our members because it represents the first opportunity that we have to actually eliminate a cancer,” Women in Government President Susan Crosby said.
LinkHere
AUSTIN, Texas — Gov. Rick Perry signed an order Friday making Texas the first state to require that schoolgirls be vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer.
By issuing an executive order, Perry apparently sidesteps opposition in the Legislature from conservatives and parents' rights groups who fear such a requirement would condone premarital sex and interfere with the way parents raise their children.
Girls will have to get Gardasail, Merck & Co.'s new vaccine against strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV. But further details of the order were not immediately released.
Perry, a conservative Christian who opposes abortion and stem-cell research using embryonic cells, counts on the religious right for his political base. But he has said the cervical cancer vaccine is no different from the one that protects children against polio.
"The emergency is in the board room of Merck, because they've seen this measure fail in three states, and they want to make sure that this thing doesn't go down the tubes," Richardson said.
They've been pushing to pass laws similar to this across the country. They've failed in Michigan, Maryland and Indiana. So how could they get a slam dunk in Texas?
Perry's former chief of staff is now a lobbyist for Merck, and his current chief of staff's mother-in-law is a state representative, involved in the group Women In Government. That group received money from Merck.
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 1:37 AM
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