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Garda-should or should not-il

By: Caitlin Lydon
Pharmaceutical Law
June 18, 2015
Stephen Marshall: Pharmaceutical Lawyer and a partner at the company Venable LLP.
Mr. Ashcraft
lydoncaitlin@gmail.com

Table of Contents
Introduction... page 3
Graph and Results...

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Conclusion...
Acknowledgements...
References...

Introduction
If one could take a vaccine that could prevent cancer, should one take it? There have been
many dysfunctions in the body caused by human papillomaviruses (HPV) like cervical cancer
and genital warts, but there has not been a vaccine until a company named Merck created
Gardasil. Gardasil is a recently new vaccine that is supposed to protect men and women from
the ages 9-26 in preventing HPVs. There should not be any court cases on Gardasil, for it is a
miracle vaccine that could prevent cancer.

However, there have been severe side effects

including death which forced people to take a second look at the vaccine. After considering the

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comparisons of the pandemic influenza vaccine and the measles vaccine to Gardasil, should one
still take the vaccine now?
Gardasil is a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine that protects against four different
types of HPV like HPV 6, 11, 16, and 18. The vaccine prevents the viruses that cause cervical
cancer, vaginal cancer, vulvar cancer, anal cancer, and genital warts. The vaccine was created by
Merck, and it was approved in 2006 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
and Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A doctor or healthcare professional will decide if the
patient should be given Gardasil or not. Gardasil is for men and women from the ages nine
through twenty-six, but it is mostly for people who are sexually active. The vaccine is given in
three injections over the span of six months. There is a better chance of protection if given all
three injections, but there is no harm if one does not take all three injections. Even though the
vaccination does not guarantee a 100 percent protection rate, it is known to protect 75% of
women from cervical cancer and 90% of men and women from genital warts. If one is allergic to
Gardasil or yeast, then he/ she should not be given the vaccine or else there will be major
consequences. There are side effects to the vaccine like fainting or pain. These side effects are
are common in most vaccines that do not agree with the body. Once some side effects are
present, one should notify a doctor immediately to take care of the issues. Unlike most vaccines,
Gardasil contains a protein that assists the bodys immune system instead of similar viruses to
help ones immune system that are prepared from the real virus. Gardasil is for the prevention of
certain HPVs that could save lives.

Graph and Results

Graph 1:

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Vaccine

Year

Effectiveness

Gardasil

2006

75-90%

Varicella (chickenpox)
Vaccine

1997

86%

MMR (measles) Vaccine

1964

60%

Graph 2:
chickenpox vaccine (Varicella vaccine)1995 - 120,624 cases to 2011- 1,000 cases
measles vaccine (MMR vaccine) 1964: 489,000 cases - 2007: 90 cases
Gardasil- since approved 29,684 cases
To infer that Gardasil will be worth the risks, Gardasil was compared to the varicella
vaccine and the MMR vaccine.

All three of the vaccines had a fairly close introductory

effectiveness rates as seen in tabue. The varicella vaccine had an effectiveness rate of 86% when
the vaccine first started. The MMR vaccine had an effectiveness rate of 60% when the vaccine
first started. Finally, Gardasil had an effectiveness rate of 75-90% since the vaccine was first
approved in 2006. Since the three vaccines had relatively similar rates of effectiveness, Gardasil
may have the same ability to eradicate the illnesses like measles and chickenpox. See graph 1.
This will create a better chance to possibly eliminate HPV 6, 11, 16, and 18 like the chickenpox
and measles. Also, the number of cases of illness decreased dramatically for year the vaccine
was administered. For example, in 1995 there were 120,624 cases against the varicella vaccine
to 1,000 cases in 2011. The MMR vaccine where in 1964, there were 489,000 cases which
decreased the MMR to 90 cases in 2007. With these statistics compared to the effectiveness rate,
one could infer that Gardasil will also have a decline in cases creating more people to get the

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vaccination and protect themselves for later in life. In the end, the statistics show that Gardasil is
worth the side effects and that this vaccine has a great potential to eliminate the chances of
genital warts, cervical, vaginal, anal, and vulvar cancer.

Conclusion
In conclusion, this project is necessary and important to know and understand because this
vaccine targets a lot of people. Whether one is too old or too young to take this vaccine, he/ she
should be aware of this vaccine that could change their life forever. This vaccine can save a lot
of people, and if no one educates themselves, then it could harm society. For example, the cases
against Gardasil is because the vaccine harmed the victim, but they could have another factor
that Gardasil did not react with nicely and harmed them. It was would the patient's fault and not
the company; however, people will see a lawsuit against the vaccine and they will not get the
vaccine leading them to danger. If people knew that by taking Gardasil, they would benefit
themselves by preventing the chances of receiving a HPV and possibly ending up with cancer.
There are many vaccines that could be compared to Gardasil to show that Gardasil is worth the
risks, but the varicella vaccine and the MMR vaccine are two vaccines that showed the closest
resemblance that could predict the outcome for Gardasil. High school students would be the
targeted audience because that is the median of the ages 9 through 26, and it is when most people
become sexually active which could lead to a HPV. Also, this project could help parents because
the information could inform the parents about Gardasil and give the protection their children
need to prevent a HPV. In the end, this project displayed that Gardasil is worth the risks of the
side effects.

Acknowledgements

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People who have helped make this project possible are Mr. Stephen Marshall, Mr.
Ashcraft, and Ji and Kevin Lydon. Mr. Marshall is a very successful pharmaceutical lawyer, who
is a partner at the company Venable LLP. He helped this project by creating the project topic
about Gardasil and giving feedback about any topics that needed to be clarified. Mr. Ashcraft is
a very successful teacher of the Independent Research GT Program and the Mentorship Program.
He helped this project by guiding the project in the right path with the assignments to get a better
understanding of the topic on Gardasil. Ji and Kevin Lydon are the parents of Caitlin Lydon, and
they helped with this project by providing support. Without these people, this project would
have be successful because they were a huge part of this project.

References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccine
Safety." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. N.p., 20 Apr. 2015.
Web. 16 June 2015. <http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Vaccines/HPV/
hpv_detailed.html>.
"HELP PROTECT 11 OR 12 YEAR OLDS AGAINST HPV-RELATED CANCER DISEASES."
Gardasil. Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., 2015. Web. 16 June 2015.
<http://www.gardasil.com/hpv-and-your-child/who-gets-hpv/>.
McLean, Huong Q., et al. "Prevention of Measles, Rubella, Congenital Rubella
Syndrome, and Mumps, 2013: Summary Recommendations of the Advisory
Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)." Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. N.p., 14 June 2013. Web. 16 June 2015.

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<http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr6204a1.htm>.
Orenstein, Walter A., Alan R. Hinman, and Mark J. Papania. "Evolution of Measles
Elimination Strategies in the United States." The Journal of Infectious
Diseases. N.p., 2015. Web. 16 June 2015.
<http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/189/Supplement_1/S17.long>.
Seward, Jane F., Mona Marin, and Marietta Vzquez. "Varicella Vaccine Effectiveness in the US
Vaccination Program: A Review." The Journal of Infectious Diseases. Varicella Vaccine
Effectiveness in the US Vaccination Program: A Review, 2015. Web. 16 June 2015.
<http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/197/Supplement_2/S82.long>.
"Varicella (Chickenpox) Cases, Deaths, and Vaccination Rates." ProCon.org.
ProCon.org, 3 Sept. 2014. Web. 16 June 2015. <http://vaccines.procon.org/
view.additional-resource.php?resourceID=005925>.