MMR firm 'cashing in' on jabs

The drugs giant making billions of pounds from the controversial MMR jab has been accused of cashing in on parents' fears about the vaccine by selling the single measles and mumps injections, the Evening Standard can reveal.

Merck & Co, which is being sued by hundreds of families who claim their children have been damaged by MMR, is supplying single jabs to doctors, pharmacists and firms in the UK who are helping parents sidestep an NHS ban on separate injections.

Merck's £5 billion-a-year profits have been boosted by the adoption of MMR as official vaccine policy in more than 30 countries. The company has insisted it is the safest and most effective way of immunising children.

So campaigners against the jab have been outraged by the revelation the US-based company is simultaneously making money out of fearful parents paying up to £200 for its single vaccines.

Gareth Fairhurst, of the anti-MMR pressure group JABS, said: "It seems completely outrageous that Merck is making money out of parents like us, who do not want to risk our children's health by giving them MMR and get attacked for wanting a choice.

"If MMR is so safe and so much better than single vaccines, why do Merck want to supply the singles as well? Single vaccines cost a lot of money - and that money is going back to the company who is forcing us into this position."

A spokeswoman for Direct Health 2000, which administers thousands of single inoculations in Britain, added: "It is pretty breathtaking that at the same time as saying MMR is completely safe and the most effective immunisation, Merck is making money out of how scared people are about it."

The Government has refused to offer parents a choice of vaccines, saying this would undermine confidence in MMR and put children at risk. Doctors who provide single jabs and parents who request them have been criticised, with Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson accusing them of "playing Russian roulette" with their children's lives.

Merck is Britain's biggest supplier of triple vaccines. The other is Glaxo-SmithKline. Merck also manufactures a measles jab called Attenuvax, and one for mumps called Mumpsvax. Single jabs are not licensed in this country but can be imported and given privately.

With licensed medicines, it is the manufacturer who is held liable, but with unlicensed drugs and vaccines, the doctors who give them are responsible if anything goes wrong.

Nearly 1,000 parents are bringing a multi-million-pound legal action against Merck, claiming MMR caused their children to develop autism and other problems. The case is due before the British courts late next year.

Last year Merck funded what was claimed to be the biggest-ever study into MMR. It concluded there was no link to autism or other disorders.

The company declined to comment on the revelation it is also selling single vaccines.