Pharmaceutical Companies' Role in State Vaccination Policymaking
abstract: "Merck promoted school-entry mandate legislation by serving as an information resource, lobbying legislators, drafting legislation, mobilizing female legislators and physician organizations, conducting consumer marketing campaigns, and filling gaps in access to the vaccine. Legislators relied heavily on Merck for scientific information. Most stakeholders found lobbying by vaccine manufacturers acceptable in principle, but perceived that Merck had acted too aggressively and nontransparently in this case."
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"Many respondents reported that company representatives proposed specific legislation, often drafting the bills and searching for a sponsor. In most states, their efforts focused on a school-entry mandate. Respondents pointed out that Merck's activities were not unusual, although the public seemed to have been unaware that private companies played such a role in the legislative process. One commented, "Just about every vaccine mandate that we have lately has been the result, at least partially, of the drug industry's efforts."
"Merck mobilized legislators to introduce school-entry mandate and other legislation relating to the HPV vaccine, primarily through Women in Government (WIG), a national, nonprofit group of female state legislators. WIG had identified cervical cancer as a priority issue as early as 2003.[10] Merck contributed unrestricted educational grants to WIG, which, among other things, covered the expenses of dozens of legislators to attend conferences on cervical cancer at appealing destinations convened by WIG and attended by Merck representatives.[11]
In addition to hosting meetings at which legislators were briefed about HPV and Gardasil, WIG prepared reports on cervical cancer prevention efforts in the states, convened a task force to make policy recommendations, prepared a "legislative toolkit" containing model school-entry mandate legislation, and conducted outreach to interest groups and the media to build support for such legislation.[12,13] Members of WIG introduced many of the mandate bills considered across the country.[14]
SOURCE:
American Journal of Public Health
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/763324_3