Cervical Cancer Vaccine - For Boys?

Drugmaker Merck Seeks To Expand Market For Anti-STD Injection Gardasil

(AP)  Drugmaker Merck & Co. has asked federal regulators to approve use in males for its vaccine against the human papillomavirus, which causes cervical and other sexually transmitted cancers.

The application was submitted in late December, Merck spokeswoman Amy Rose said Tuesday.

It was long planned as part of Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck's strategy to increase the market for Gardasil. It prevents infection with the sexually transmitted virus and thus cancers of the genital organs.

Gardasil, launched in 2006 for girls and young women, quickly became one of Merck's top-selling vaccines, thanks to aggressive marketing and attempts to get states to require girls to get the vaccine as a requirement for school attendance.

However, it is one of the priciest vaccines on the market, typically costing $360 for a three-dose regimen.

Gardasil had 2007 sales of $1.5 billion, but sales began slowing in the second half of 2008, after a government-funded Harvard study concluded it was cost-effective for girls but not for women in their 20s.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has two months to decide whether the application for use in males meets its standards. Reviews can then take 10 months or more.

The application includes research data from a Merck study including about 4,000 males, ages 16 to 26; Gardasil prevented 90 percent of cases of penile cancer and genital warts caused by the four common virus strains targeted by the vaccine.

The agency approved use of Gardasil in females ages 9 to 26 years old in June 2006, but last June rejected expanding that to include women ages 27 to 45. The vaccine has since been approved for use by young women in dozens of foreign countries.

A rival vaccine called Cervarix, made by Britain's GlaxoSmithKline, is approved in many foreign markets, but generally lags behind Gardasil in sales. It is still awaiting approval in this country.

[rebel1935]

With all of the deaths of young women and asverse effects, Thgis really baffles me. What does Merck want ?,To maim all of the next generation?

[jtdev1]

OMG!

Don''t they know that men/boys don''t have a Cervic???

Just another way to make more money for the drug manufacturer


They tried to make it a law in my state... TG that was turned down...

[garbosmed]

Fantastic! Maybe when healthy teenage MALE athletes start finding themselves inexplicably paralyzed with a "coincidental" neurodegenerative disorder, or dropping over dead from sudden blood clots, or have their immune systems totally short-circuited by the aluminum, maybe THEN somebody will do something about getting this boondoggle off the market.

[forasongca]

Given that there''s no way of detecting HPV in men, this vaccine - or the next one, if it''s safer - *might* actually keep men from passing along a cancer-causing strain of HPV unknowingly. That would be worthwhile.

[notmudrose1]

anyone that says that other people shouldn''t have the vaccine should die from the disease.

[barbaram99]

for boys? I think not . I am 54 and and female and some meds are for us ladies only. No boy wants to take a med for girls.I think they best realise that the genders are diffent. They want to medicate too much. It made no sense to me.

[kansas1946]

for boys? I think not . I am 54 and and female and some meds are for us ladies only. No boy wants to take a med for girls.I think they best realise that the genders are diffent. They want to medicate too much. It made no sense to me.


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Posted by BarbaraM99 at 11:08 PM : Jan 06, 2009
**********************

What?? The vaccine would prevent the virus in boys, which would prevent them from spreading it to girls. Sounds great to me.

[rf35]

Once again, it seems a lot of people are reading only the headline before posting comments. That, or they don''t know what Gardasil actually does. HPV virus affects both males and females. The virus causes genital warts as well as cancer of reproductive organs in both genders. Calling it a cervical cancer vaccine was mostly a marketing ploy%u2026the vaccine prevents the cancer by killing the virus that can cause the cancer. Various strains of human papillomavirus cause more than just cervical cancer. Please learn what you are talking about before posting hysterical rants.
Of course, I expect the usual anti-vaccine nutballs to come out of the woodwork on this one. Any vaccine is bad and evil and causes autism and brain damage and will make your teeth rot and your hair fall out. Yep, we%u2019ve heard it all before. For some reason, these people would rather see American children crippled by polio or dead from any number of childhood diseases now prevented by vaccines than admit that maybe some drugs actually do good.

[carlylaine]

Give me a break!
*****
ITEM:...hopes of limiting HPV cases among women in the future?
*****
Does anyone realize what is happening here? Doctors who throw dead babies in the trash before the parents can say goodbye and bury the child and they want to hopefully give a serum that will HOPEFULLY prevent.......?...Yea these are the people I trust.

It doesn''t matter which hospital did whatever. They are pretty much all the same.

[drinuk]

They just never give up, not content with harming adolescent girls they now want the poison young boys too. There is no limit to the evil of Big Pharma and those in our Government, whom we employ, who support their scams. GARDASIL is FLAWED, it is a nonsense, unproven and highly dangerous.

Our Government should be protecting us from Snake Oil Crooks like Merck and Glaxo, instead they are in bed with them. SHAME ON YOU !

[drinuk]

rf35, is yet another Big Pharma Mole, supporting the evil drug barons. Please ignore his comments.

[carlylaine]

notmudrose1 = an unmerciful fool.

[rf35]

rf35, is yet another Big Pharma Mole, supporting the evil drug barons. Please ignore his comments.
Posted by drinuk

Actually, I have no love for "Big Pharma." Their business practices are criminal, their profits are obscene, and many of their products are worthless. But every once in a while, they come up with something useful. I hate to say it, but I bet life would really suck without a pharmaceutical industry. Now if the appropriate governments could just reign in their more unsavory practices...problem is, people can''t seem to agree to exactly what those are. Anyway, I can support the drug without supporting the drug company.
Just out of curiosity, are you an anti-vaccine nutball? I want to know whether to take anything you say seriously or not.

[barbaraf4]

"Please learn what you are talking about before posting hysterical rants." Posted by rf35
~~~~~~~~
The pharmaceutical companies are all about money and market share. Those who think they are all about humanitarian causes are dead wrong (pun intended).

Drugs and medical appliances are rushed to market without adequate testing with the assumption that the initial profits will cover any future lawsuits.

By the time we find out exactly what Gardasil does to these young, growing bodies, it could be too late. What if it causes sterility?

I believe any pharmaceuticals should be tested on the families of the pharmaceutical executives BEFORE it goes to market.

[barbaram99]

Its the drug companies making money off the people . Drs they are human and have I very little faith in them. As educate beings they have to be told to wash their hands. They can''t wipe out viruses in people. Common sense tells me that. Boys get breast cancer. Yep. Drug companies are in the business of making money. I asked my Dr. a simple ? that she should know the answer to. She told me* I don''t know. *I was floored. I never went back to her. I have seen the TV ads for girls forced to take this med. Now they want force boys to take it. They can''t wipe out the common cold.

[differnet]

Talk to an immunologist instead of listening to people who know nothing about disease spread and you will be told that the Gardisol vaccine is one of the best things that the pharmacy companies have come up with in over a decade. It will be 30 years or more before we really see the pay off, but this vaccine will end up saving the USA millions of dollars in medical care for cervical cancer. One of the arguements for vaccinating males that is not being discussed is that they are the carriers for the viruses that would infect women. By vaccinating both men and women, you created herd immunity and basically irradicate the disease from our population.

[rf35]

What if it causes sterility?
Posted by barbaraf4

Good...the world is overpopulated as it is.

[tincup356]

Beware using anything that gets approval in two months after a sham testing.....and government requirement....I don''t trust anything our government says we have to do.....It''s becoming quite evident from all the other matters they control......they are not expert enough for me to trust.....they have a habit of lying for personal profit....and when you have things like this drug out there, being pushed by the lobby dollar to make this a required drug......Something is terribly wrong here....After all.......how many things have we been told by congress that was a total lie?

[docpeter1953]

I believe any pharmaceuticals should be tested on the families of the pharmaceutical executives BEFORE it goes to market.

Posted by barbaraf4 at 05:39 AM : Jan 07, 2009
__________________

Hey what a novel approach. I like it. Now if we could only get the lobby together to work out the finer details of the law.

[vcofreason]

The article''s title is VERY misleading and whoever wrote it is an idiot. It''s an HPV vaccine for boy, NOT a cervical cancer vaccine. HPV is very easily spread through s.e.x.u.a.l (better not write out the word s.e.x. here, heaven forbid!) contact and preventing boys from getting and spreading it is logical. Using the article to create some non-existent twist is just stupid. Try informing people instead of trying to shock them all the time.

[rhondawriter]

Merck and others should be held accountable for their misleading "research data" and for the lives permanently damaged by vaccines!

And - vaccines should be tested on the vaccine creators! Read this article written by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for an inside perspective: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/7395411/deadly_immunity/

My son was mercury poisoned by a "safe" vaccine! And, YES, mercury IS still in many vaccines AND flu shots - ingredient list here: http://www.informedchoice.info/cocktail.html

We ALL need to take action to help one another. I share my program, Autism Awareness: From Suspicion to Success, to offer hope to others. For details email me here: [e-mail]

[Renegade.Rivers]

Before you people that call folks who question the safety of many of the vaccines "nutballs," I suggest that you do some research on the subject.

FEDS%u2019 WARNING SHOT - %u201D GARDASIL %u201C
Federal health officials have logged 8,000 %u201Cadverse events%u201D in girls and women injected with the Merck & Co. vaccine introduced two years ago, more than 500 of them from New York. Drug regulators have received thousands of reports of serious side effects, ranging from paralysis, heart attack - and even death - in the two years since its launch in the USA. So, if the vaccine is far more dangerous than we''re being told, how come it''s being pushed on millions of young girls around the world . Check out the link and read the whole story.
http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/vaccines.htm

Now they want to do the same thing to our young men? Wake up America!!!!

Its part of the eugenics project that the rich elite are trying to perpetrate on the public. Do this search on Google Eugenics program CFR it may shock you, and make you want to protect your children and grandchildren as well.

[rhondawriter]

Kudos, renrivers,

People should not act like cattle... following one another to the slaughter house (somewhat literally).

I personally know a family who''s daughter died from the same shot that mercury poisoned my son. They were told, "You signed the form stating that you understood the risk."

PLEASE, people, do your research. renrivers and I have given you some very valuable links. Take a few minutes to look them over. Most people take less time to sign the forms (written to remove the liability from the doctor and the drug manufacturer). The life you save could be your child''s!

[whitemale08]

Merck has to be SHUT DOWN NOW!

This maggot company which lobbys Congress to pass laws forcing Americans to buy their worthless drugs is RIDICULOUS and DISGUSTING!

The people that work for Merck are nothing but eugenesists that see a market for ''reducing the world''s population'' by experimenting with their sexual organs.

YOU CANNOT SEXUALLY TRANSMIT CANCER!!!

I''m not even a scientist but am smart enough to know that!

I WILL REFUSE AND MY FAMILY WILL REFUSE ANY OF THESE CONGRESSIONAL MANDATED POISONS!!!

STOP THE NEW WORLD ORDER NOW!!!

[eus109937]

This vaccine is very important to young men that have *** with the same gender. HPV is spread very rapidly in the gay population and this vaccine could help stop the spread.

[newsjunky5]

I''m OK with Texas(a mandatory state) using their schoolgirls as guinea pigs to test this (I don''t live there, and they''ll iron out the bugs/kill the kids and ban it before my daughter is old enough to need STD protection), but you should avoid taking any drug before it''s been on the market about 7 years, unless you already have a life-threatening illness.
I feel sorry for the girls and their parents who are forced to take it, and can''t afford to opt out with private school. This is a really big drug safety study, and Merck reaps profit during it, instead of paying a lot to fund a study before approval. Thanks, Texass

[pjsurvivor1]

OK - as a survivor of cervical cancer, I am appalled to see how much bad information there is out there about this vaccine and HPV in general. If there was a vaccine for breast cancer, I doubt we would see such negativity out there, cause breast cancer is more socially acceptible than cervical cancer or sexually-related cancers. How many womne would sign up to get a breast cancer vaccine if it became available.

While cancer cannot be transmitted sexually, the virus that causes cervical cancer can be transmitted and not just through sexual intercourse. It can be transferred through ANY form of sexual contact or via kissing orally withon someone who has an active infection. Second, it should be mandated for young women because it saves lives. Plain and simply. People fall to realize that 80 PERCENT OF ALL SEXUALLY ACTIVE PEOPLE IN THE U.S. HAVE OR HAVE HAD HPV. Of those 80 percent, 10 percent go on to develop cervical cancer, whether it is male, female, gay or stratight, married or not.

The vaccines isn''t a license for people to sexually irresponsible, but a way to protect them. Nobody deserves to be sujected to the ongoing medical mutilation of their female reproductive parts because of cancer. The testing, repeat surgeries, stimga, shame, phsychological damage are with your for life.

[pjsurvivor1]

BTW - the use of the Gardasil vaccine for boys will help them protect against head, neck, and throat cancers which are also caused by HPV. HPV also leads to oral, anal and brain cancers in some men and women.

[pjsurvivor1]

As to the point about Mercury being in the shots. If you have read antyhing lately, you would know that the Gardasil vaccine DOES NOT contain mercury or thimerosal, which is what all the debate with autism and other autoimmune disease has been about.

Thimerosal has also been removned from all children''s vaccines, including influenza.

As a national spokesperson for women''s health focusing on HPV and cervical cancer, I highly encourage people to checkout information regarding the Gardasil vaccine from viable sources not connected to the drug comapny. Gardasil has undergone more than 7 years of testing and known to be 99.7 percent effective if administered to girls/women before their first sexual experience. If it only saves half the women injected from getting cervical cancer and HPV, then it is a winner in my book!

[garbosmed]

True, Gardasil doesn''t have mercury. It has 225mg of aluminum adjuvant per dose, the most of any vaccine except for the anthrax vaccine. That same adjuvant has been studied scientifically and was shown to cause motor neuron death. In a recent Congressional report it was implicated in Gulf War Syndrome. Is it any wonder, then, that young pre-teen girls, who weigh much less than our soldiers in uniform, are becoming paralyzed at a rather alarming rate following this vaccine? This vaccine is an abomination. It should only be given to the people who approved it in the first place.

[pjsurvivor1]

Many of the reports of health issues related to the vaccine have been overbloated and sensationalized by the media. While some girls have issues, it has usually been related to doctor negligence based upon providing this vaccine to someone who already is representing with an autoimmune disorder and/or been diagnosed. They should not receive the vaccine, plain and simple. But for otherwise healthy young women, more than 95 percent of all complaints have been about pain at the injection site or fainting.

I understand the autism issues that exist, but at the age peeople are getting the shot, they are really well beyond the age that autism is diagnosed. Its not like they are giving it to a two-year-old. It is going to people between the ages of 9 and 26, who would have already been diagnosed with autism by that age if they have a competent doctor.

Also, many of those who developed the shot and or work for Merck have vaccinated their own children against HPV. I for one plan to vaccinate my children.

[garbosmed]

"They should not receive the vaccine, plain and simple."
Yes, they should not receive the vaccine. But nobody at the CDC or FDA has said that, have they? And no tests have been done to see WHICH disorders might be a contraindication for vaccination, have they? Nor have any studies been done to see if the vaccine actually CAUSES the type of immune disorders or mitochondrial dysfunctions you talk about. Even the CDC was recently surprised to learn that mitochondrial dysfunction may be much more prevalent than previously thought. Another recent study showed that aluminum adjuvant affects the permeability of the blood-brain barrier, leaving a person more susceptible to other pathogens. So if you and the others who work for Merck are going to rush right out and vaccinate your kids with this garbage, that''s your choice. But choice is the key here -- don''t expect the rest of the world to follow you over the cliff, and don''t expect us to put up with government mandates for a vaccine that was never adequately tested in the first place. How in the world the FDA allowed clinical trials with no true placebo is just beyond me.

[garbosmed]

And as for the other 5 percent of adverse events (more than 14,000 reported to VAERS as of November), how about death and paralysis. That''s pretty serious, eh?

And then there''s this: "November 18, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) %u2013 Gardasil, the vaccine being pushed by governments around the world to combat the spread of human papillomavirus (HPV), has been linked in Fiji with 3 cases of outbreaks of genital warts among primary school students."

So, giving someone the disease you''re supposed to be vaccinating against is a pretty big tipoff that something''s not quite right, wouldn''t you say?

[brainteaser2]

Little girls get HPV from little boys. To disrupt the infectious circle boys and girls need vaccination. In the future I am also confident that HPV will also be identified as a cause of prostate CA.

[kodysdad]

C'mon people the Gardasil vaccine has to be safe otherwise the FDA would ban the use of it. The FDA just yesterday banned Hydroxycut after 1 death. If there had been any Gardasil deaths the FDA would have quickly banned it too. Besides, pharmaceutical products are under much more scrutiny than supplements or vitamins. So they would never release any vaccine or drug if it were not safe, right?

Oops. 29 deaths, dozens of paralizations, countless more cases of young girls with serious side effects. That's just for Gardasil. Don't look up the facts on Viagra. Not good. People are dying. But these are "acceptable losses." The families are paid large sums of money. That is how this game is played. Don't take my word. Look up the facts in medical journals and mainstream medical websites. I live in Texas you have heard the slogan "Don't mess with Texas." Well, don't mess with Texan's kids. No way in hell will my daughter or son will be getting this vaccine. Furthermore, the CDC's vaccine schedule for infants thru 18 years is legalized child abuse. Shame on us (the parents) for letting this train get so far off the tracks.