Gardasil: Brand of the Year?

Pharmaceutical Executive has named Merck’s HPV vaccine as its “brand of the year.” I agree with their choice. Gardasil is one of those drugs that has everything going for it: It cures a disease rather than simply managing it over the long-term. The latter strategy may be more lucrative, but the former is better science. To market the drug, Merck has had to battle the anti-science forces: The vaccine must be administered to the population group that most suffers from the delusions and hysteria of “community leaders”—teenage girls who are virgins. Some on the religious right have suggested that the vaccine sends the message that it is OK to screw around. I don’t know why certain conservatives would rather their daughters be exposed to genital warts and cervical cancer, that’s just the way it is in certain communities, I guess. Merck’s marketing team (pictured) has navigated past this potential controversy, and it's paid dividends. The governor of Texas has already sidestepped a bible-thumping controversy by ordering the vaccine be administered in his state.