False Advertising of the HPV Vaccines

by Christina England
January 19, 2011

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1232/false-advertising-of-the-hpv-vaccines

A recent news report claims that there has been a spate of false advertising by Merck and GlaxoSmithKline for their HPV vaccines. SANE VAX sent out a press release this week reporting that around the world HPV vaccines have been falsely advertised. They state that as a consequence of false advertising France have banned Gardasil advertising and many adverts for Cervarix have been removed in the UK.

On the 31 August 2010, France banned advertising Gardasil as an anti-cancer vaccine in their country. A press release went out on the 4th January 2011 from SANE VAX entitled Gardasil, One Less Victim of Cervical Cancer?" France says 'NO' as they ban Gardasil ads stating:

"Amidst all of the media hype surrounding HPV vaccines, the traditional press has remained silent on many critical issues, not the least of which occurred on the 31 of August 2010 in France. As of that date, Merck's marketing partner for the HPV vaccine Gardasil, Sanofli-Pasteur, was officially prohibited from advertising Gardasil for cervical cancer prevention in France.

According to public documentation, the Director General of the French Agency for Safety of Health Products (AFSSAPS) found the sponsor of several Gardasil ads to be in direct violation of the French public health code."

India also has had problems with HPV advertising. In December 2009 the Indian authorities felt that GlaxoSmithKline were misleading the public in the way that they advertised Cervarix. The Drugs Controller General of India or DCGI; the Drug Regulatory Authority of India pulled up GlaxoSmithKline Plc's (GSK) for what they called "unlawful" propagation of its cervical cancer vaccine Cervarix, through mass media.

They stated at the time that GlaxoSmithKline's promotional advertisement campaign had appeared in different newspapers and on television channels announcing that the vaccine was effective against cervical cancer and this contravenes the provisions of Indian drug laws.
The DCGI stated that the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and Drugs & Magical Remedies Act 1954, does not allow any claim to prevent or cure diseases in Schedule J of the Act, which includes cancer and the adverts they said does just this.

Under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, drugs sold under prescription cannot be advertised and this includes vaccines. India only allows advertisement of over-the-counter (OTC) drugs.
Even though the GlaxoSmithKline adverts did not refer to the name of its product Cervarix anywhere in the ad campaign experts are reported to have said the following:-

"Those ads clearly claim that vaccination can prevent cervical cancer, so it doesn't matter that they don't name the vaccine."

It was reported that DCGI Surinder Singh was quoted to have said:-

"They (GSK) say the vaccine will be effective for cervical cancer. This kind of advertising is not allowed"

GSK were asked by the DCGI to withdraw promotional advertisements for the cervical cancer vaccine, because they believed the campaign to be violating certain norms. A spokesman for GSK said:

"We have received a show cause notice from the DCGI regarding our disease awareness campaign on cervical cancer. We are in the process of responding to the same suitably,"

See here for details

In February 2010, I wrote an article entitled Cervarix HPV vaccine adverts are untrue and should be banned. In the article I explained my outrage at the adverts in the UK advertising the Cervarix vaccine. At the time the UK advertising campaign used the phrase 'Armed for life' as their campaign slogan. This was an outright lie as this vaccine does not 'arm teenagers for life against cervical cancer'. I felt so strongly about these lies that I wrote to the Advertising Standards Authority and complained. I sent a very strong letter and backed it up with evidence. Imagine my surprise when I received a letter back stating:

"Based on the information you provided, it appears you have a valid point and with a view to acting quickly, we have instructed the advertisers to change the ad.We have asked them to amend the ad so that either the text 'for life' is removed from the claim 'Arm yourself for life', or the text 'The vaccine and regular cervical screening will help protect you for life' is added to clarify the headline claim."

As a result of my complaint my local Primary Care Trust decided to remove all the adverts instead. Gradually all the adverts disappeared.

SANE VAX reports on the full story in an article entitled Cervarix - Armed for life? United Kingdom says 'NO' as they battle false advertising . Spurred on by my achievement Grace Filby a member of the SANE VAX team then took up the challenge to remove the slogan off all internet sites and advertising.

Reports are now coming in from other countries stating that they are also seeing false advertising. Sandy (surname removed) a professional from Norway has told me that they to have advertising problems. She states that on one of the medical sites it says "Det er dumt å la kvinner dø unødig når livmorhalskreft kan forebygges ved hjelp av HPV-vaksinen". Translated: "It's foolish to let women die unnecessarily when cervical cancer can be prevented by the HPV-vaccine". She says:

"The statement is in connection with an article called "Myths and Facts". Many readers will believe the statements which are under "Facts" as they are written by a doctor, although plenty of them should have come under "Myths"(!). The same doctor who has written this is also very energetic in writing similar false claims in many newspaper articles and internet discussions here, in an obvious attempt to frighten 12 year old girls into being vaccinated with Gardasil. It is disgusting to observe the unethical way in which this person and some others promote the vaccine, and the way in which the media reproduce every word they say. The Norwegian health authorities implemented a program for all 12 year old girls here to be "offered" the Gardasil vaccine. In effect there are no doubt many who are tricked into thinking that they must conform, also they are naturally scared by the threat of cancer. They line up to get the vaccine. It takes guts for a young girl of that age to say no and to stand out from her classmates. There appears to be no restriction here regarding these false claims. I contacted the main medical site where the statement is posted and the reply was that the health authorities were satisfied with it. I answered that they may be biased and the medical site then contacted a supposedly neutral doctor to look into it. His response to me was that the doctor who had written the statement was "rather enthusiastic"! I got no further."

This has got to stop for the sake of the children. This is propaganda drummed up to sell vaccines. These vaccines are now given to children of both sexes from the age of nine. In the USA alone there has been 20,915 Adverse Events, 370, Abnormal Pap Smears and 89 Deaths reported on the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System VAERS and 5 Deaths uncovered by Judicial Watch, not included in VAERS reports. If you see false advertising of these vaccines in your country please contact the SANE VAX team at http://sanevax.org/ who will look into the matter.

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