Merck sells vaccine lab to PPD in research deal

piggy submitted, created time 2 days 10 hours (www.reuters.com)

Pharmaceutical Product Development, a large contract research company, has purchased Merck & Co's vaccine testing laboratory as part of a collaboration with the drugmaker, PPD said on Monday.

The deal is the latest between the pharmaceutical companies and contract research organizations, as drugmakers seek to cut costs and be more efficient with their huge research budgets.

PPD bought Merck's 130,000 square-foot vaccine testing laboratory and related equipment in Wayne, Pennsylvania, and hired nearly 80 Merck workers who operate the facility

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Merck vaccine protects men from wart virus, too

sea-maid submitted, created time 1 month 3 weeks (www.reuters.com)

A vaccine designed to protect women and girls from cervical cancer caused by a wart virus may protect men, too, maker Merck and Co reported on Thursday

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Government HIV vaccine doesn't make it out the gate

Darkfrog submitted, created time 5 months 3 weeks (www.nytimes.com)

Plans for a large-scale clinical trial of an HIV vaccine developed by the U.S. government were cancelled this week. The researchers fear jumping into human trials too soon, without knowing more about how their vaccine will affect the volunteers. Here is a quote:

"The trial canceled Thursday was supposed to have started enrolling 8,500 volunteers last October to receive the PAVE [Partnership for AIDS Vaccine Evaluation] vaccine, developed by the infectious diseases agency

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Drastic action of editor: Withhold manipulated data from clinical trials

DanyC submitted, created time 8 months 3 weeks (www.cbsnews.com)

Manipulation of studies and misrepresentation of study results could not have occurred without the cooperation (active and tacit) of clinical researchers, other authors, journal editors, peer reviewer, and the FDA.But two studies appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association have prompted the journal's editors to call for "drastic action" to prevent drug companies from misrepresenting data from clinical trials.

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Merck stands accused of publication fraud

jane2007 submitted, created time 8 months 3 weeks (www.nature.com)

International drug giant Merck, because of using ghost-writers for papers published on Vioxx trials, stands accused. But Merck rejects the allegations of manipulation and misrepresentation and denies that the documents show any wrongdoing.

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Trial of Cholesterol Drug Gets House Scrutiny

jane2007 submitted, created time 1 year 3 weeks (www.nytimes.com)

A Congressional committee is investigating Merck and Schering-Plough for their handling of a critical clinical trial of Zetia, their blockbuster cholesterol-lowering drug.

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Study shows how some AIDS vaccines may harm

Merck says Gardasil vaccine protects older women

yangjane submitted, created time 1 year 2 months (www.reuters.com)

Gardasil, Merck's vaccine for preventing cervical cancer in girls and women aged 9 to 26, may offer protection for women up to age 45, the company said on Sunday.ervical cancer is the second most common type of tumor in women and the leading cause of cancer death in some countries.

More than a quarter of U.S. girls and women aged 14 to 59 are infected. About 90 percent of infections clear within two years.

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Texas legislature blocks mandatory HPV vaccination

Darkfrog submitted, created time 1 year 8 months (www.nytimes.com)

The Texas legislature has overruled Governor Perry's decree that all sixth-grade (about eleven years old) girls in Texas must be vaccinated with the HPV vaccine. This ruling does not in any way ban vaccination; it only says that the governor may not require it. Also, the ruling will only be in force for four years. Unless it is renewed, the governor of Texas may revisit the idea of mandatory HPV vaccinations in 2011

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