Published April 1, 2007

What’s the Rush?
Scientist: Lobbyists’ ‘Coziness’ with Group Fueling Vaccine Push

By Cindy Bevington
KPC Media

LEBANON, N.H. — Diane Harper, a scientist and physician who has been working on developing a vaccine for HPV for 20 years — both Merck & Co. and GlaxoSmithKline have helped fund her research — has been a guest speaker at three Women In Government events. Each was a symposium where the prevention and elimination of cervical cancer has been either the focus of the event or a topic at an event.

“All were more than a year ago, and they haven’t invited me back, which is OK,” Harper said.

Women In Government is a 501(c)(3) group comprised of women state and federal legislators. The group sponsors numerous events across the country, with the goal of educating legislators on hot topics that could have impact in their work.

WIG is a good group, Harper said. They have good intentions, she said. But they are misguided in their mission to mandate this vaccine for little girls in their home states. She’s tried to tell numerous people that this is wrong, including major media, she said, but nobody wants to listen.

A fair question, then, would be what’s the rush to mandate? And, if she’s tried to tell them this isn’t the thing to do, why are they so head-strong in going ahead with the mandates?

The answer, Harper believes, lies with drug company lobbyists who fill WIG’s sponsor lists and sit on the organization’s policy-making boards.

The HPV vaccine lobbyists are representatives and executives of Merck, Glaxo and Digene, the manufacturer of the test for HPV. All three companies at some point in the past few years have sat on WIG’s Business Council, or are still there.

They all have been listed as sponsors for the organization for several years, too. Sponsors pay an undisclosed amount of money to support Women In Government and its goals.

The Business Council, according to a cached WIG 2006 Web page, is a “small, select group of industry leaders” who “play an integral role in planning for future growth … and (who identify) funding opportunities for Women In Government.”

In 2006, Deborah Allen, Merck Vaccine Division’s executive director of health policy and external affairs, had a seat on this board. Merck isn’t listed as a 2007 Business Council member, but GlaxoSmithKline is.

“I think the coziness they have with the lobbyists (for this vaccine) has been what’s affecting them to push for the mandates,” Harper said.

“The Merck employee who is the lobbyist on this WIG panel is very, very good at her job. What these women are hearing is the excitement of  ‘We  have  a  vaccine  and  it’s effective.’

“And when you get people excited about something like that, the first thing they think is, ‘Well, let’s get rid of (cervical cancer).’ This lobbyist has been able to raise the excitement and initiatives of these legislators to do what they’re doing.

“Now their motions are already filed, and if they back out now, they as legislators are going to look really silly if they say, ‘This isn’t what should be,’ because there has to be some face-saving value for them. So they’re just continuing on.”

The women legislators who have been pushing HPV vaccine mandates for young girls across the country believe they are doing the right thing, Harper said. In their hearts they think their actions will have a  positive impact on these girls’ future cervical health. And because their intentions are good and honest, they shouldn’t be discredited personally  for not realizing that their efforts were only helping Merck, she said.

“They have done what they believed was right,” Harper said. “They just didn’t realize the advantage was to Merck’s benefit, not little girls’.”

After spending two decades researching and developing this vaccine, Harper is not happy with the way Merck has marketed it. 

“Both companies — Merck and GlaxoSmithKline — have very good vaccines,” she said. “But I’m disappointed in the marketing. Merck has not said anything incorrect, but the way they are marketing it makes it so people only hear, ‘This is a  vaccine that protects me from all cervical cancer. … And that’s wrong. That’s just wrong.”

The mismarketed message has spread through major media outlets, that insist on saying this vaccine prevents cancer, Harper said. “What they’re saying is true, but it’s not all true. I have said to them that vaccinated women and women who still get Pap smears, some of them will still get cervical cancer.

“That’s the semantics. And then you have the lobbyists, and what the women hear is ‘This vaccine will  eliminate cancer’ — but it won’t. If I were to do the marketing I would say this is a vaccine that prevents the types of HPV responsible for half of high-grade lesions for about 70 percent of cancers — not 100 percent.

“It is effective against those 70 percent of those types. That’s the true message.”

Cindy Bevington is a columnist and special assignments reporter for KPC Media. She may be contacted at KPC Media Group., P.O. Box 39, Kendallville, Ind. 46755, or by e-mail at cindyb@kpcnews.net.