FDA Panel Endorses Cervical Cancer Vaccine

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060518/ap_on_he_me/cancer_vaccine

A vaccine that blocks viruses that cause most cervical cancer is safe and effective and should be approved, a federal panel recommended Thursday. The drug maker said the vaccine could slash global deaths from the No. 2 cancer in women by more than two-thirds.

A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee voted 13-0 on five separate times to endorse Merck and Co.'s Gardasil. The anticipated cost of the vaccine, administered in three shots over six months, is $300 to $500 — a possible impediment to widespread vaccination campaigns.

The drug protects against the two types of human papillomavirus (HPV) believed responsible for about 70 percent of cervical cancer cases. The vaccine also protects against two other virus types that cause 90 percent of genital wart cases. All four virus types are sexually transmitted. The FDA is not required to follow the recommendations of its outside panels of experts, but usually does. An agency decision is expected by June 8.

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease. It affects more than 50 percent of sexually active adults. The cervical cancer it can cause kills each year about 290,000 women worldwide, including 3,500 women in the United States, where regular pap smears often detect precancerous lesions and early cancer.

That's what they say anyhow. Bunch of backward idiotic people. This vaccine will save lives, but they don't see it that way.

over the counter, but it's been blocked for years.

The last one wanted to crack down on the cattle feed ban, which is shot full of loopholes to the benefit of Tyson and other big donors. He was gone three days later and Tyson got a chance to rewrite the rule, and of course, gutted it.

Science means nothing to these nazis.

against the board's executives, one could say they're "sitting pretty".

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-briefs17.1may17,1,3611337.story?coll=la-headlines-business

snip

A federal judge has dismissed a group of shareholder lawsuits that accused Merck & Co. officers and directors of violating their duties by concealing the health risks of the company's Vioxx painkiller.

The plaintiffs acknowledged they failed to make a demand for action by the board before filing suit, as required, Trenton, N.J.-based U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler ruled. The ruling does not affect the 11,500 suits filed by patients and others.

Let's see how well they do with the 11,500 other suits.

If this particular product does exactly what it claims to do, without life-threatening side effects, then one can praise Merck but..based on the track records of both Merck and the FDA's attitude towards promoting the big pharmas at any price, they still have a long way to go to convince me that they are on the up and up.

as a child by her icky step-grandpappy could have used this. She got cervical cancer in her 20's due to this virus

Hope that sicko is rotting in prison. grr:

I have HPV and cervical cancer and have been fighting for this for years so my daughter can get this vaccine.


The fundies keep throwing their bullshit in to block it. This is a good sign.

sure.

Imagine if sex had no bad consequences! How would they ever control women?

Tesha

But this vaccine won't do it. It's 'off' by 30%.

In fact, that was one of the concerns: That people would hear 'vaccine' and wrongly assume that HPV was no longer an issue.

The vaccine is basically totally effective at preventing HPV
if administered before contact with the virus.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=42307 :
"Merck in October 2005 announced that Gardasil in clinical trials
was 100% effective in preventing infection with HPV strains 16 and
18, which together cause about 70% of cervical cancer cases."

Where the 70% number comes in is that HPV may only be responsible
for 70% of cervical cancers.

There's not much doubt that this vaccine could eliminate HPV
if widely used for a long-enough period of time; that's why
it scares the BeJesus out of the fundies.

Tesha

...The FDA is not required to follow the recommendations of its outside panels of experts, but usually does. An agency decision is expected by June 8.

:kick:

Thus leaving the widowed man free to marry again. Don't you see how it works?