http://www.pharmalot.com/2012/06/merck-overstated-mumps-vaccine-effectiveness/
Two former Merck virologists are charging in a whistleblower lawsuit that the drugmaker used improper testing techniques and falsified test data, among other things, to fraudulently overstate the effectiveness of its mumps vaccines for which the federal government has paid hundreds of millions of dollars. As a result, the former Merck employees also maintain that mumps outbreaks continue to occur.
Merck allegedly included in “its seroconversion measure all virus neutralizations, regardless of whether they resulted from human antibodies or by their combination with the animal antibodies. This enhanced methodology allowed Merck to increase dramatically the recordable instances of mumps virus neutralization and to count those neutralizations toward seroconverslon and its measure of the vaccine’s success,” according to the lawsuit.
Along the way, the former Merck virologists claim their boss destroyed “garbage bags” full of evidence and cancelled a contract with a lab in Ohio because test results could not be replicated. And Krahling, in particular, charges that he was threatened with jail time by a human resources representative if he contacted the FDA, which the virologist had threatened to do after meetings with Merck vaccine managers did not assuage his concerns.
Two former Merck virologists are charging in a whistleblower lawsuit that the drugmaker used improper testing techniques and falsified test data, among other things, to fraudulently overstate the effectiveness of its mumps vaccines for which the federal government has paid hundreds of millions of dollars. As a result, the former Merck employees also maintain that mumps outbreaks continue to occur.
Merck allegedly included in “its seroconversion measure all virus neutralizations, regardless of whether they resulted from human antibodies or by their combination with the animal antibodies. This enhanced methodology allowed Merck to increase dramatically the recordable instances of mumps virus neutralization and to count those neutralizations toward seroconverslon and its measure of the vaccine’s success,” according to the lawsuit.
Along the way, the former Merck virologists claim their boss destroyed “garbage bags” full of evidence and cancelled a contract with a lab in Ohio because test results could not be replicated. And Krahling, in particular, charges that he was threatened with jail time by a human resources representative if he contacted the FDA, which the virologist had threatened to do after meetings with Merck vaccine managers did not assuage his concerns.