2012: The
Top Fifteen Selling Vaccines
JULY 14, 2013
By Norma Erickson
The ‘medical miracle’ of vaccines has proven quite miraculous
on at least one front, the financial one. Investors in the manufacture,
distribution and administration of vaccines have reaped handsome rewards
since the creation of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA).
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC):
The topic of vaccine safety became
prominent during the mid 1970s with increases in lawsuits filed on behalf of
those presumably injured by the diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus (DPT) vaccine.
Legal decisions were made and damages awarded despite the lack of scientific
evidence to support vaccine injury claims. As a result of these decisions,
liability and prices soared, and several manufacturers halted production. A
vaccine shortage resulted and public health officials became concerned about
the return of epidemic disease. To reduce liability and respond to public
health concerns, Congress passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act
(NCVIA) in 1986.
This change in liability created an environment where vaccine
manufacturers could evolve from threatening to get out of the vaccine
production business to generating the following sales in 2012:1
1. Prevnar 13®
– $3.718 billion – Pfizer
2. Gardasil® –
$1.900 billion – Merck & Co/Sanofli Pasteur MSD
3. PENTAct-HIB –
$1.522 billion – Sanofli/Sanofli Pasteur MSD
4. Infanrix/Pediarix
– $1.183 billion – by GlaxoSmithKline
5.
Fluzone – $1.152 billion – by Sanofli/Sanofli Pasteur
MSD
6. Hepatitis
franchise – $986 million – by GlaxoSmithKline
7.
Varivax – $846 million – by Merck & Co/Sanofli
Pasteur MSD
8. Menactra – $735
million – by Sanofli/Sanofli Pasteur
9. Zostavax –
$651 million – by Merck & Co/Sanofli Pasteur
10. RotaTeq® – $648
million – by Merck & Co/Sanofli Pasteur
11. Synflorix® – $587
million – by GlaxoSmithKline
12.Pneumovax®23 – $580 million – by Merck & Co/Sanofli
Pasteur
13.Rotarix – $549 million – by GlaxoSmithKline
14.Adacel – $469 million – by Sanofli/Sanofli Pasteur MSD
15. Prevnar – $399
million – by Pfizer
For the five producers of the top 15 vaccines, this is a total
of $15.925 billion; not at all bad for an industry that was threatening to
close down operations 30 years ago. Apparently, limited liability does
wonders for the bottom line.
Whether the miraculous nature of the limited liability
vaccination programs instituted since the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program
(VICP) was created extends to safety and efficacy remains hotly debated.
For instance, in 1980 there were three recommended vaccines
given in five shots before age 2; DPT (Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis), MMR
(Measles, Mumps, Rubella) and OPV (oral polio vaccine). The autism rate in
1980 was estimated at 2/10,000. Now, children could receive as many as 24
shots by 2 years of age and five shots in a single visit1 and
the autism rate is now 1/88.2
No, this information does not prove causation. However, any
reasonable person can see that a correlation exists. This correlation needs
to be thoroughly investigated by people who are not stakeholders in vaccines
or vaccination programs.
Until that research is completed, exercise your right to
informed consent.4 Do your research.
Get These Questions Answered Before
You Decide If A Vaccine Is Right For You Or Your Child:
§ How serious is
the disease being vaccinated against?
§ What are the
chances of being exposed to this disease?
§ What is the
normal outcome of contracting this disease?
§ What is the worst
case scenario of contracting this disease?
§ What are the
ingredients in this vaccine?
§ Do I have an
allergy to any of the vaccine ingredients?
§ How effective is
this vaccine?
§ What are the
adverse effects currently associated with this vaccine?
§ Have I
experienced an adverse reaction to any prior vaccination?
§ Does my family’s health history make me more likely to
suffer an adverse reaction to this
vaccine?
§
Does my current state of health indicate I can be
vaccinated now, should wait to vaccinate later, or not vaccinate at all?
§ What are the
alternative ways to protect against this disease?
Above all, remember vaccines can
and do cause injury or death for some individuals.
Don’t play vaccine roulette –
evaluate the risks, benefits, and alternatives – be a wise medical consumer!
References:
1.
Top 15 Selling Vaccines of 2012, Genetic
Engineering & Biotechnology News, July 2013
2. History of Vaccine Schedule, The
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, reviewed by Paul A. Offit, MD
4. Informed Consent, Medline Plus,
National Institutes of Health
You
likely didn’t know that the Japanese government has
concerns that two popular HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccines, Merck’s Gardasil
and GlaxoSmithKline ‘s Cervarix, can cause very severe side-effects including
long-term pain and numbness, infertility, and paralysis. If the Japanese can
ultimately show that the vaccine is dangerous, what does that mean for
litigation in the Untied States where millions of young girls have received the
shot? It will not be the litigation avalanche that you suspect.
Chances are that you
might not be familiar with the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA) of 1986 which created the Office of Special
Masters of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims otherwise known as the “Vaccine court.” In essence, the Vaccine court was
created to shield vaccine manufacturers from federal and state court
litigation.
While the Vaccine court
has, on occasion, made sizeable awards to children injured
from vaccines, the structure of the court is “a no-fault compensation scheme”
which gives cover for Big Pharma to disclaim that theirs vaccines are actually
dangerous.
As for Gardasil, the
Vaccine court has already paid out almost $6 million in claims concerning that drug (including two
claims which resulted in death). The Vaccine court has also awarded $20 million in
cases for vaccine-induced autism – something the drug giants tell us is just a
medical fairytale. Likewise, the court has handed out numerous awards for flu shots that have caused
Guillain-Barre Syndrome and even death.
In 2011, the Supreme
Court upheld the Vaccine
court system when challenged, holding that it “reflects a sensible choice to
leave complex epidemiological judgments about vaccine design to the FDA and the
National Vaccine Program rather than juries.” Put another way, “we think juries
are too stupid to figure out if vaccines are really injuring or killing kids.”
Rather than the protection of a Vaccine court,
which does little to incentivize the creation of the safest vaccines possible,
we need vaccines to be subject to the same jury trial scrutiny that other scientific
and medical cases are.
http://www.fiercevaccines.com/story/japan-withdraws-recommendation-merck-and-gsk-hpv-jabs/2013-06-19
Japan takes a particularly reactive approach to vaccine adverse
events. In 2011 Pfizer's ($PFE) Prevnar and
Sanofi's ($SNY)
ActHIB vaccines were both suspended following the deaths of four children.
This week the spotlight is on GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK)
and Merck ($MRK).
The Japanese health ministry has told local governments to
suspend promotion of Gardasil and Cervarix while it
investigates adverse events linked to the human papillomavirus (HPV) shots. As of this
week, the vaccines are still freely available, but physicians will stop
recommending use of the jabs, at least temporarily. The health ministry
decision follows reports of people experiencing severe prolonged pain after
receiving the vaccines.
An estimated 3.3 million people have received the HPV vaccines
in Japan, almost 2,000 of whom have then reported possible side
effects, The Asahi Shimbun reports.
A ministry task force
took a closer look at 43 cases but was unable to establish a causal
relationship between HPV shots and symptoms of pain or numbness. HPV vaccines
have been linked to more side effect reports than other shots approved at the
same time, though. For every million vaccinations with Cervarix, Japanese
people have reported 241 side effect cases. In contrast, there have been 67
cases per million Japanese encephalitis vaccinations.
The prevalence of side effects--coupled with high-profile cases,
such as a girl who lost the ability to walk after receiving
Cervarix--prompted the task force to call for further studies. In the
meantime, the ministry is withdrawing its recommendation of the vaccine.
"The decision does not mean that the vaccine itself is
problematic from the viewpoint of safety. By implementing investigations, we
want to offer information that can make the people feel more at ease,"
task force head Mariko Momoi said. A ministry official told The Japan
Times the HPV vaccination rate is certain to drop sharply while the
issue is being resolved.
Related Articles:
Gardasil®
Developer Claims Vaccine Prevents Abnormal Pap Tests, Not Cervical Cancer.
213 Women
Who Took Gardasil Suffered Permanent Disability
Naomi
Snell, a 28-year-old woman in Melbourne, Australia, is leading a class-action
civil lawsuit against drug maker Merck after suffering autoimmune and
neurological complications following injections with the HPV vaccine, Gardasil.
After
receiving the first of three doses of the vaccine, Naomi suffered convulsions,
severe back and neck pain, and lost her ability to walk.
Doctors
actually diagnosed her with multiple sclerosis, which was later retracted and
labeled a neurological reaction to the vaccine.
Seven
other women, who say they have suffered various physical problems, including
anaphylaxis and miscarriage, after receiving Gardasil may also join the civil
lawsuit, and this is likely only the beginning, as Gardasil is being implicated
in a growing number of serious, permanent and sometimes deadly adverse
reactions.
Multiple Sclerosis-Like Symptoms and Paralysis Not Unusual
After HPV Vaccination
Unfortunately,
stories like Naomi's are all too common in relation to Gardasil.
One of
the vaccine injury cases featured in the movie The Greater Good is that of Gabi Swank, a 15-year-old
honor student who decided to get the Gardasil vaccine after seeing a "Be
One Less" Gardasil vaccine advertisement on TV.
Like so
many young girls, she wasn't warned about any possible side effects when she
got the shots, which are given as a series of three injections.
At the
time the documentary was filmed, she had already suffered two strokes and
experienced partial paralysis. She also lost part of her vision and today
suffers frequent seizures. When she was in high school, many days she had to
use a wheelchair to get around school due to muscle pain and chronic fatigue.
A similar
reaction happened to 13-year-old Jenny Tetlock,
who began seeing signs of trouble just one month after she was vaccinated
against the HPV virus. Fifteen months later, a degenerative muscle disease left
her nearly completely paralyzed.
Neurological
symptoms such as these were also reported in a study done in 2009by neurologist Dr. Ian
Sutton. He reported five cases of multiple sclerosis-like symptoms emerging
shortly after women received the Gardasil vaccine, noting:
"We
report five patients who presented with multifocal or atypical demyelinating
syndromes within 21 days of immunization with the quadrivalent human papilloma
virus (HPV) vaccine, Gardasil. Although the target population for vaccination,
young females, has an inherently high risk for MS, the temporal association
with demyelinating events in these cases may be explained by the potent
immuno-stimulatory properties of HPV virus-like particles which comprise the
vaccine."
Further,
Judicial Watch, a public interest group that investigates and prosecutes
government corruption, recently issued an update on adverse reaction
reports relating to Gardasil.
The
documents obtained from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the
provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) detail 26 new deaths
reported to the government following HPV vaccination between September 1, 2010
and September 15, 2011. That's 26 reported deaths of young, previously healthy,
girls after Gardasil vaccination in just one year.
Other
serious side effects reported during that time frame included:
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