TRENTON, N.J., Feb. 20 (UPI) -- Merck & Co. said Tuesday it would stop trying to get U.S. state legislatures to mandate preteen girls be inoculated with its cervical cancer vaccine.
Merck's aggressive lobbying effort was intended to boost sales of its Gardasil vaccine, which received Food and Drug Administration approval last year, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Gardasil provides protection against two strains of a sexually transmitted virus that are thought to cause most cervical-cancer cases.
At least 20 states are considering making the vaccine mandatory for schoolgirls, with many proposing girls be vaccinated before the can enter sixth grade.
Part of the state rush has been fueled by Merck's forceful lobbying, which began even before federal regulators approved the product last year, The New York Times reported.
Eventually, even public health officials who favored the vaccine said the effort to make it mandatory had come too fast.
Merck said Tuesday its lobbying efforts had become a distraction from its goal of immunizing as many women as possible against cervical cancer, medical affairs Executive Director Richard Haupt said.
Merck has "decided at this point not to lobby for school laws any further," he said.
