Government's Chief of Vaccine Promotion to Head Merck's Vaccine Division

by Heidi Stevenson

22 December 2009

After being America's biggest vaccine promoter as head of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Julie Gerberding has been hired by Merck & Co. to head its vaccine division. It is a testament to the intimate connections between Big Pharma and the government agencies they have coopted. Merck's investors saw the appointment as a boon, showing their approval with an immediate 2.3% increase in its stock price.

Gerberding will take over as President of Merck Vaccines, a $5 billion subsidiary of Merck & Company, on 25 January 2010—almost exactly one year after leaving the post of CDC Director, the minimum waiting time for taking a position with a business that is supposedly being regulated by the CDC.

She is noted for a major restructuring of the agency, which she dubbed the Futures Initiative. It resulted in the the loss of key scientists and managers, and a letter from five former CDC directors expressing "great concern" over the resultant poor morale. She responded that the CDC needed to "grow new science." That apparently translated into anything that promoted the profits of vaccine makers, especially Merck, which markets 12 of the 17 vaccines that the CDC currently recommends for every child, and Gardasil, the so-called "cancer vaccine".

Unfortunately, the restructured agency that Gerberding left behind has been stuffed with personnel loyal to her own branded loyalty. Since her departure, the CDC has doggedly and aggressively promoted Merck's Gardasil and the H1N1 swine flu vaccine, even to the point of making claims completely unsupported by facts.⁽¹⁾

Merck's press release quotes Gerberding as saying:

I am very excited to be joining Merck where I can help to expand access to vaccines around the world.

The same press release states:

She will be responsible for the commercialization of the current portfolio of vaccines, planning for the introduction of vaccines from the company's robust vaccine pipeline, and accelerating Merck's on-going efforts to broaden access to its vaccines in the developing world.

The future she had in mind with the Futures Initiative seems to have been her own. With the restructured CDC she's left behind, Gerberding is certainly well qualified to meet Merck's expectations.