Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Evidently they are looking to make more on Gardasil

Now the makers of Gardasil are saying that males starting at the age of 9 can take the shot that was originally stated worked only for women, I admit I'm skeptical as to the stated results of the research:

At Wednesday's advisory committee meeting, pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co., maker of Gardasil, presented data from three clinical trials that the company claims supports broadening the distribution of the vaccine to include males. The trials included more than 5,400 boys and men from six continents and 23 countries.

According to Anna Giuliano, an independent scientist at Moffit Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, and the trials' principal investigator, "The data clearly demonstrates that there was a benefit to men in receiving Gardasil. Overall, we saw a 90 percent reduction in disease -- genital warts and pre-cancerous lesions -- caused by HPV in men and an 89 percent reduction in genital warts incidence.

It's hard to believe they saw a 90 percent reduction considering the time span of how long it takes for signs of this disease to show in men and Gardasil was just released in 2006. It also does not address some of the recent concerns related to death.

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