Big Pharma admits it lied about the MMR vaccine

The pharmaceutical giant that threatened to “destroy” doctors who raise concerns about one of its drugs is back in court for allegedly lying about the effectiveness of its measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

Merck ranks third on the list of the most fined drugmakers with $10.7 billion in fines to date, and by 2009 had paid over £2 billion in compensation to 44,000 US citizens because its drug for arthritis Vioxx increased the risk of heart attacks. Now, in a shocking case brought under the False Claims Act, a 200-year-old law introduced to protect the US government from fraud, it admits to falsifying data about the mumps component of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. .

Merck*, which sells $100m (£78m) of MMR doses annually in the US, told the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the US public health body that buys it, and the Food and Medicines (FDA), which authorized it. , that it gave children 95 percent protection against mumps. This figure could be as low as 50% or even zero.

Since 2000, the rise of mumps outbreaks among the fully vaccinated and boosted has led the FDA to instruct Merck to prove its 95% protection claim or lose its license. Merck ran the numbers and came up very short. They devised a test to measure its effectiveness – Protocol 7 – which included rabbit blood in the hope that it would falsely increase its sensitivity. They also swapped the wild measles virus for the weakened vaccine strain in the test. Nothing improved the numbers enough and they stood to lose millions in revenue. Investigating the alleged fraud, Dr Andy Wakefield said: “At that stage they simply decided to cut the numbers and replace them with numbers that gave them the result they wanted.”

Despite the overwhelming evidence, first highlighted in 2010 by Merck whistleblowers, virologists Stephen Krahling and Joan Wlochowski, Judge Chad F Kenney last July ruled in favor of the drug giant, who argued that the data processing did not matter because the US government knew and kept buying. their MMR jab anyway. The government’s defense was that they had no choice because they had to protect children from measles. Merck holds the US monopoly for MMR, and measles has been targeted for global eradication using the vaccine. An appeal is expected to be heard next month.

The complicated case is the subject of an award-winning feature film Protocol 7, premiering today. Follow the story of a mother and lawyer, played by Rachel Whittle, who uncover the fraud while trying to find reasons for her adopted son’s autism. Actors Matthew Marsden and Eric Roberts (Julia Roberts’ brother) also star.

It is directed by Andy Wakefield, the much-maligned British doctor ousted after raising concerns about the MMR vaccine’s links to bowel disease and autism. Dr Wakefield, who has read thousands of pages of court documents relating to the mumps scandal, said: “The judge did not rule in favor of Merck on the basis of fraud. Merck has not effectively denied the efficacy issues.

“Merck’s lawyers argued that the government continued to buy the vaccine and if the evidence about the mumps component had been valid, it would have stopped. Lawyers for the whistleblowers said that number one, the CDC as the purchaser of the vaccine was defrauded and they did not know what Merck had done. Number two, because it’s a triple vaccine, they’ve had to continue to immunize children against measles and rubella. There was no choice.

“You’d think they were pretty solid arguments, but the judge still ruled that because the government went ahead and bought it, the issue of materiality won the day.” (The legal term “materiality” means important or significant.)

Protocol 7Legal counsel for Jim Moody said: “There are many studies that show the mumps component doesn’t work at all about 50% of the time. It’s a simple case of false pretenses, like selling the military a faulty piece of hardware.

The terrible irony is that the US did not want the mumps component, developed by American vaccinologist Maurice Hilleman in the 1960s.

Dr Wakefield said: “Somehow it got into the market. Merck lumped it in with measles and rubella because they own mumps and have cleared all their competitors of measles.

“Measles was the market because it was targeted for global eradication using the vaccine. That was where the money was. Suddenly, Merck had a monopoly in the US on MMR and measles.

Millions of children were potentially harmed by the alleged fraud. Dr Wakefield said: ‘Childhood mumps is common. Mumps in adolescence and after puberty is not common; there is a much higher rate of inflammation and testicular sterility, ovarian inflammation and meningitis. So a vaccine that doesn’t work makes a common disease a more serious disease. Therefore, safety and efficacy are inextricably linked to the mumps vaccine. The vaccine failed or disappeared and children became susceptible when they were much more vulnerable to permanent damage. Merck knew this, they knew they were dealing with a potential time bomb.

MMR was introduced in the US in 1971 (1988 in the UK), but most infectious diseases declined by 98% before any vaccinations were introduced. Mumps cases increased again in 2006, mostly in vaccinated children or adults. The CDC has acknowledged that up to 94 percent of those who contract the disease have been vaccinated. They failed to recall the shot, patients were not warned, and Merck failed to mention that although they claimed their product had a 24-month shelf life, the mumps component only lasted 12 months.

Merck is known to play hardball and their dirty tricks first came to light in 2009. During the Australian Vioxx trial, emails showed they made a “hit list” of doctors criticizing them and their drug Vioxx. Their communications used words like “neutralize” and “discredit” next to the names of various doctors. One particularly shocking memo said: “We may need to seek them out and destroy them where they live.”

Dr. Wakefield’s career was destroyed for questioning MMR. A senior lecturer, liver transplant surgeon and pediatric gastroenterologist at the Royal Free Hospital in North London, his case study series published in the journal Lancet in 1998 looked at 12 children with bowel disease and autism, eight of whom developed both problems after receiving MMR, their parents said. The study concluded that they need further investigation to prove the link. This never happened as the ensuing furor saw Dr Wakefield struck off the medical register by the General Medical Council (GMC) in 2010.

It was immediately written off by the British press, which served as a warning to all doctors and scientists who question vaccines. He said: “It’s a very different world now, everyone understands the cancellation culture, but then it was just me. I don’t mean this to call poor Andy Wakefield, it’s just a historical fact of life. I didn’t have the systems to destroy people: the prototype was developed through my experience.

Covid vaccines and the resulting deaths and injuries have changed many doctors’ views on it, as Dr Ahmad Malik’s podcast discusses. The public’s experience with covid vaccines, capable of causing permanent disability and death, has led them to wonder whether childhood vaccines can also cause considerable harm.

Dr. Wakefield agrees. He said: “The whole covid saga will turn out to be one of the biggest mistakes that science and experts and the pharmaceutical industry have ever made. It has led to an almost complete loss of confidence in public health and the pharmaceutical industry.

“That’s why these films are so important. You can provide a series of facts that make people think. There is a silver lining.

Merck, the CDC, the FDA and GlaxoSmithKline have all been contacted for comment. None received.

NOTE: If the whistleblowers’ appeal is successful, the likelihood is that Merck will settle out of court, not with the children or adults affected by their product, but with the US government. Mr Moody said: “These types of cases always settle because the damages are too high, three times the purchase. They will probably end up settling for $100 million or more. Merck will never risk a jury.

*NOTE: GlaxoSmithKline sells the MMR jab in the UK.

Interested in hosting a screening? Please contact Protocol 7.