Merck Stops Producing Vaccines Without Cells From Babies Killed in Abortions
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
December 31, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A leading pro-life group that educates about the vaccines that are based on the cells from babies killed in abortions is worried about a new decision from the pharmaceutical giant Merck. The company has decided to stop producing some vaccines that are not made based on fetal cells from abortions.
Merck & Co. Inc has stopped the production and sale of its monovalent vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella.
Instead, the company will focus on combination vaccine, MMRII, which accounts for 98 percent of the company’s sales of the vaccines targeting those diseases.
The monovalent vaccines account for only two percent of the total sales but they are important to the pro-life movement because they are produced based on animal cells and not from cells obtained from the bodies of babies killed in abortions.
"Merck’s separate dose for rubella, Meruvax, uses aborted fetal cell lines and taints the entire MMR II vaccine," Debi Vinnedge of the pro-life group Children of God for Life tells LifeNews.com.
"The separate doses of Attenuvax (measles) and Mumpsvax (mumps) use chick embryo. Without these separate doses for measles and mumps, there will be no moral alternative for parents," Vinnedge says.
Merck spokeswoman Amy Rose said the decision to eliminate the monovalent vaccines was made for both financial and health reasons.
"The combination vaccine is what’s recommended, and it’s such a significant portion of the orders we see," she told AAFP. "It’s in the best interest of public health to make more of that rather than dedicate manufacturing capacity to monovalents."
Rose said Merck has not decided if it will make the moral monovalent vaccines available for sale again in the future.
Vinnedge’s group issued Merck a letter on Tuesday asking the company to reconsider its decision.
She says millions of pro-life Americans "are deeply concerned with the use of aborted fetal cell lines in the rubella portion of your MMR II and other vaccines, I am asking you to reconsider your position."
She also said parents have been willing to wait for the alternative vaccines to be produced and were willing to pay higher costs in order to give their children vaccines that are not abortion-based.
"Once again, many of these families are waiting for you to resume production and their children will be unprotected unless you provide the doses. They are already abstaining from rubella and some have even flown overseas to vaccinate their children. That is, in my view, a disgrace to American healthcare," she said.
Vinnedge says Merck’s decision is far-reaching because Merck is the sole provider of these alternative vaccines.
ACTION: Contact Merck and express your desire for the company to reverse its decision and make the non-abortion vaccines available. Contact Richard Clark, CEO, Merck & Company, One Merck Drive P.O. Box 100, Whitehouse Station, NJ 08889-0100. Call 908-423-1000 or find more information at https://www.merck.com/contact
Related web sites:
Children of God for Life – https://www.cogforlife.org
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