New York, NY: Further to a whistleblower class action lawsuit filed in 2010 by two former employees who allege Merck' MMR vaccine is not as 95% effective as Merck claims, a new federal antitrust class action has been filed by Alabama-based Chatom Primary Care.
According to Courthousenews, the primary caregiver alleges Merck falsified test results for the MMR vaccine and sold millions of doses of "questionable efficacy," flooding and monopolizing the market. The lawsuit was filed late in June, the week after the unsealing of the 2010 False Claims Act complaint filed by two relators, formerly Merck virologists.
Merck' MMR vaccine is currently used to inoculate children against mumps, measles and rubella. Stephen Krahling and Joan Wlochowski, were Merck virologists who claim in their unsealed complaint that they "witnessed firsthand the improper testing and data falsification in which Merck engaged to artificially inflate the vaccine's efficacy findings."
In their lawsuit, Krahling and Wlochowski alleged Merck's scheme resulted in the United States paying "hundreds of millions of dollars for a vaccine that does not provide adequate immunization."
"As the largest single purchaser of childhood vaccines (accounting for more than 50% of all vaccine purchases), the United States is by far the largest financial victim of Merck's fraud," according to the 2010 False Claims Act complaint.
"But the ultimate victims here are the millions of children who every year are being injected with a mumps vaccine that is not providing them with an adequate level of protection. And while this is a disease that, according to the Centers for Disease Control ('CDC'), was supposed to be eradicated by now, the failure in Merck's vaccine has allowed this disease to linger, with significant outbreaks continuing to occur."
