Merck Launches Dose Replacement Program for HPV Vaccine

Delegates at the AAFP National Conference of Special Constituencies recently took action on a measure intended to address the high cost of some vaccines recommended for routine administration by the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP. Now the manufacturer of one such vaccine, Merck and Co. Inc., has launched its own initiative aimed at helping physicians and other immunization providers defray some of these costs.

Physicians who enroll in Merck's Dose Replacement Program can receive a limited number of free replacement doses of the company's quadrivalent human papillomavirus, or HPV, vaccine, Gardasil, when they administer the vaccine to privately insured 19- to 26-year-old women and later learn the women's insurance plans provide no HPV vaccine coverage.

Program participants are eligible to receive one replacement dose for each 10 qualifying doses purchased per calendar year, although all participants can receive at least one replacement dose as long as they've purchased a single dose that year. Details about the program, including enrollment instructions, are available online.

The Dose Replacement Program does not apply to doses given to patients who are eligible for government-funded health coverage, such as Medicaid or the Vaccines for Children program, or to those who have no health insurance. In addition, the program is not available in Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota or Rhode Island.

Merck says it expects the program to extend through 2009 while company officials work with appropriate stakeholders to identify long-term solutions to the daily challenges immunization providers face in obtaining private insurance reimbursement for giving the HPV vaccine to their patients.

Visit the Academy's Immunization Resources Web page for recommended immunization schedules developed by the ACIP, in conjunction with the AAFP and the American Academy of Pediatrics, that include information about the HPV vaccine.