Sexual Politics Help Thwart The HPV Vaccine
LatestThe HPV vaccine, Gardasil, was expected to be a slam-dunk for pharmaceutical giant Merck. Instead, it’s considered a business failure. Among the many reasons: The politicization of inoculating little girls against future STDs.
Fortune says it’s largely because it’s been hard to get women to actually show up for three shots, spaced out, despite Merck trying text and email reminders. And because it’s expensive. And because of talk of side effects, though no causal link between the vaccine and deaths has been proven.