An interesting piece in the Chicago Tribune unveiled Merck's latest plans for turning the embattled drugmaker's fiscal fortunes around with the help of three new vaccines in the FDA regulatory pipeline:
- Gardasil, a drug intended to protect women from four kinds of human papillomavirus that accounts for the lion's share of cervical cancer cases.
- Zostavax, a vaccine for shingles.
- Rotateq, an oral remedy for common gastrointestinal illnesses in children.
The company is certainly looking for a home run, considering its well-publicized legal wrangling with patients over the health-harming Vioxx, and Zocor running out of patent protection.
However, what you and many other consumers may not recall -- and what Merck is probably betting on -- is news of a scandal I posted earlier this year involving the mislabeling of hepatitis B vaccines for babies that weren't thimerosal-free.
Chicago Tribune December 14, 2005 Registration Required