Some of these companies are now doing in the tens of billions of dollars per year in sales. The drug industry is the most profitable industry in the world today bar none. The returns on invested capital, and profit margins are extraordinaryPresident Bush, and the then Republican Congress created the prescription drug program for seniors in an attempt to reverse the tide for these companies. The drug manufacturers have been a major contributor to the Republican Party for more than a decade. Both Merck, and Pfizer have begun downsizing their sales forces in response to the slow down.
What has Merck done NOW?
Let's put this in perspective. About 180,000 women this year will be told they have breast cancer. About 40,000 of these previously diagnosed women will eventually die from breast cancer, and its complications. Between 8 times and 10 times the number of women who die from breast cancer, will die from heart disease this year. As you know breast cancer gets all the publicity compared to the other two diseases.
Merck got TEXAS on board first
The way the deal works in Texas is that unless you can demonstrate proof that you have taken the shots, you are not going to be allowed to go to school. At the moment it looks like your health insurance is going to pick up the cost, but of course there are millions upon millions of uninsured young people in this country. Who is going to pay for them? Apparently a former Chief of Staff to Governor Perry is a lobbyist for Merck, which is the same thing as saying she works for Merck, isn't it. It's amazing what a couple of dollars paid to a lobbyist can achieve.
When Merck's back is to the wall, Merck knows how to respond. Merck is feeling the heat from a number of drugs going off patent, and is therefore pulling out all the stops to systematically have each state mandate the use of this vaccine. The states that are currently considering forcing pre-teenage girls to take this vaccine are: California Maine Colorado Michigan Connecticut Minnesota District of Columbia Mississippi Florida New Jersey Hawaii New Mexico Illinois OklahomaIndiana South Carolina Kansas Texas (DONE) Kentucky Virginia
When the clinical trials were done, the participants were mostly older women. Only a small minority of the participants were teenagers, yet teenagers are the target market. Without a much broader test of the teenage market, it may be too early to tell if there is a problem. The vaccine is being rolled out in massive quantities in the interim.
The growth ahead seems to be in the young and middle stage biotech companies that do their research differently than Big Pharma. The biotech research facilities are routinely located in direct vicinity of major college campuses which are receiving billions of dollars of funding from the taxpayer through the National Institute of Health.
