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How much should Gardasil cost? Re: "How much should Gardasil cost?",1 which argues that Merck could cut the price of its HPV [human papillomavirus] vaccine by 90% and still profit. Stop complaining that publicly traded, for-profit companies charge too much for their products. They were not established to maximize the social good. If you believe they are denying treatment due to pricing, you have other options beyond haranguing them about morality: Go to a stockholders' meeting,

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Re: "How much should Gardasil cost?",1 which argues that Merck could cut the price of its HPV [human papillomavirus] vaccine by 90% and still profit. Stop complaining that publicly traded, for-profit companies charge too much for their products. They were not established to maximize the social good. If you believe they are denying treatment due to pricing, you have other options beyond haranguing them about morality: Go to a stockholders' meeting, campaign to change patent laws, or investigate a vaccine to compete with theirs. Personally, I'm just glad to see the pharmaceutical companies actually back to working on life-saving products instead of hair-growers and erectile-dysfunction treatments.

Robert Dodge
Falmouth, ME
robertdodge@mac.cm

In considering how much profit Merck is entitled to make on its investment,1 one should also consider the US taxpayer's investment. Two researchers at the National Cancer Institute, Douglas R. Lowy and John T. Schiller, did much of the ...

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