No mainstream media reported that in 2014 a Pennsylvania federal judge ruled in favor of whistleblowers, former virologists with Merck, Stephen Krahling, and Joan Wlochowski. They have accused Merck of lying about the efficacy of its mumps vaccine. The complaint was recently unsealed. 

Merck was sued by their former virologists who claimed that they “witnessed firsthand the improper testing and data falsification in which Merck engaged in to inflate the vaccine’s efficacy findings artificially.” Line 2 of the Introduction says,

“Specifically, in an effort to maintain its Food and Drug Agiminstraions approve and exclusive licenses to sell the vaccine, Merck has used improper testing techniques and falsified test data to fabricate a vaccine efficacy rate of 95 percent or higher.”

The complaint says the two former virologists were pressured to participate in the fraud and the cover-up by supervisors and management. They were involved in the testing and witnessed the manipulation of the results.

The United States is the largest purchaser of Merck’s Mumps vaccine, and the alleged fraud dates back to 1999. Merck has sold over 450 million doses worldwide and over 200 million in the United States and sold seven million yearly.  Merck’s original vaccine was created more than forty years ago. The complaint says that they were not testing on the “wild virus” that most would be exposed to in real life. Instead, they tested children’s blood against the same strain that the children were vaccinated for, therefore overstating the real effectiveness rate. The seroconversion rate was only 79.5%

The complaint states they abandoned the gold standard in the test that they named Protocol 007 and came up with a new one, which had an objective to find a measurement that permits >95% efficacy. It says they added rabbit antibodies in pre and post-vaccination tests to enhance the results, and when doing this, they achieved 100 efficacy. In real life, rabbit antibodies added to the vaccination would cause severe illness and even death. It is not uncommon to use these antibodies in testing but not how they used them to skew the results, the filing alleges.

Krahling brought the falsifying of test results to the attention of management. When he said he would go to the FDA, he was told that he would go to jail if he did. The next day they destroyed all of the evidence of the testing. Krahling called the FDA even though he was threatened with jail time. The complaint alleges that when the FDA came in to investigate, they took approximately a half-hour, and they did not speak to the staff, but only two supervisors who were the ones who covered it up. Krahling was barred from the testing process and offered a transfer, which he refused, and left the company. Wlochowski worked in the lab until a transfer in Sept 2001 and then left the company.

According to the filing, “significant bonuses were given.” Emilio Emini, V.P of Merck’s Vaccine Research Division, had promised those participating in the “enhanced” testing scheme huge bonuses for the work already completed and double bonuses once completed.

https://www.docketbird.com/court-cases/United-States-of-America-et-al-v-Merck-Co/paed-2:2010-cv-04374