How Merck and Drug Regulators Hid Serious Harms of the HPV Vaccines

By: Peter C. Gøtzsche

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eBook | 19 August 2025

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This is a story of scientific misconduct, committed by Merck, the fourth biggest drug company in the world.

Merck has committed scientific misconduct before, and the author describes the fraud related to Merck's arthritis drug, Vioxx, which killed tens of thousands of patients because Merck concealed that it causes heart attacks.

In his role as an expert witness in a lawsuit against Merck, Dr. Peter C. Gotzsche read 112,452 pages of confidential study reports about Merck's HPV vaccine Gardasil, corresponding to five hundred medium-sized books, and wrote an expert report of three hundred fifty pages with four appendices. Dr. Gotzsche reveals that Merck used numerous tactics to avoid reporting serious neurological harms of Gardasil, including Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) and Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), which, in his view, in some cases constituted outright fraud.

How Merck and Drug Regulators Hid Serious Harms of the HPV Vaccines details how the drug agencies were complicit in scientific misconduct and gives many examples that other authorities also provided seriously misleading information about the benefits and harms of the HPV vaccines.

Dr. Gotzsche gives a rare insight into the behavior of drug company lawyers when a company comes under attack for having concealed serious harms of its drug. He describes how he was harassed by Merck's lawyer who tried to impugn his character and scientific credibility in ways, which included setting up traps for him during his deposition. If anyone was in doubt whether Merck and our authorities can be trusted, this book gives the answer.