Vaccination News

TORONTO, September 20, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - As Canada, in large part due to aggressive behind the scenes lobbying, rolls out the not-comprehensively-tested Merck HPV vaccine for girls as young as nine, a look at developments on the vaccine south of the border should cause Canadians serious concern.  In the United States a similar lobby campaign by the same company launched the mass HPV vaccination of girls beginning in June last year.  

In just little over a year, the HPV vaccine has been associated with at least five deaths, not to mention thousands of reports of adverse effects, hundreds deemed serious, and many that required hospitalization.

Continue reading "Deaths Associated with HPV Vaccine Start Rolling In, Over 3500 Adverse Affects Reported" »

Novartis has demonstrated its commitment to the vaccine market with a $500 million (600 million Swiss francs) global licensing deal for Switzerland's Cytos Biotechnology's anti-smoking vaccine. Cytos gains 35 million Swiss francs up front for CYT002-NicQb, which is scheduled to go into late-stage trials in 2008. The rest of the money will be paid in scheduled milestones for a successful development program. Novartis takes over all development costs and responsibilities. NicQb works by spurring the development of antibodies that attach to nicotine molecules, making them too big to penetrate the blood-brain barrier, thereby reducing nicotine stimulation.

Continue reading "Novartis inks $500M anti-smoking vaccine pact" »

AUSTIN — The Senate Monday passed a bill overturning Gov. Rick Perry's order that middle-school girls be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted virus linked to cervical cancer, with a requirement that the issue be reviewed in four years.

After a brief debate, the Senate voted 30-1, with Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, casting the lone "no" vote.

The bill would prevent the HPV vaccine from being required for school enrollment until 2011. The version passed by the House has no expiration date.

Continue reading "Senate votes to overturn Perry's vaccination order" »

As the first FDA-approved cancer vaccine, designed to protect against human papillomavirus, has moved from scientific discussion to social debate, other vaccine studies are continuing to make progress. While HPV vaccine efforts had the "benefit" of a viral source for the disease, other researchers are developing vaccines for cancers that are not virally based, in an effort to coax the immune system into attacking cancerous cells.

At the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, presentations on ongoing HPV trials and other new approaches to stimulating the immune system are injecting momentum into cancer vaccine research.

Continue reading "Taking A Jab At Cancer By Stimulating The Immune System" »

A vaccine against the sexually transmitted virus that can cause cervical cancer went on sale Wednesday in Italy, the first European Union nation to offer the vaccine free for 12-year-old girls, the Italian Health Ministry said.

The ministry said a campaign will be launched soon to encourage the free vaccination of 12-year-olds but that the vaccine for the human papillomavirus, of HPV, will not be mandatory. Older girls and women who want the vaccination will have to pay for it.

Proponents of the vaccine say it will be most effective when given before girls become sexually active. Ministry officials said the vaccine is being supplied by Sanofi-Pasteur, the vaccine division of Sanofi-Aventis.

Continue reading "Italy to Offer Cervical Cancer Vaccine" »

By Maggie Mahar

February 22, 2007 - Yesterday, Merck announced that it is no longer going to try to persuade states to make its new $360 cervical cancer vaccine mandatory for all pre-teens. (At least, not publicly). The company wouldn’t divulge how much it has spent, to date, on its lobbying campaign.

Virtually everyone has heard about “Gardasil.” Planned Parenthood backs it. Women in Government extols its virtues. (Both organizations receive significant contributions from Merck). Not long ago, a glowing New York Times editorial congratulated Texas governor Rick Perry for mandating “A Vaccine To  Save Women’s Lives.”( So far as I know, Merck makes no contributions to The New York Times, but Perry’s former chief of staff is a Merck lobbyist.) At this point, twenty states have drafted plans to follow Perry’s example.

Continue reading "Merck’s Miracle Vaccine –What Is This Story Really About?" »

A TEENAGER is fighting to prove that the MMR vaccine made her deaf.

Katie Stephen, 16, fell ill with a fever 10 days after being injected with an early form of the immunisation as a toddler in 1991.

Parents Wendy and Alistair believe the vaccine, which included a strain of mumps, was responsible for their daughter losing the hearing in her left ear.

Continue reading "Deaf girl sues over MMR vaccine" »

Children given a flu vaccine by nasal spray were better protected against the disease than those given the old shot in the arm, according to new research in the most recent New England Journal of Medicine.

The study, which followed nearly 8,500 children in 16 countries, found the vaccine sniffed up the nose reduced the influenza "attack rate" in children by 55 percent compared to the traditional injections.

The attack rate is the number of people who get sick compared to the total number of people in a study group.

"Children get the flu twice as often as adults," said Dr. Robert Belshe of St. Louis University, the study's lead author. "It's important to vaccinate kids against influenza -- and to identify new and more effective flu vaccine options -- because kids have a higher attack rate for influenza infection than adults."

Continue reading "Nasal flu vaccine works better for kids" »