BIG Pharma is to compensate hundreds of young people for permanent injury caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. Symptoms suffered by adolescents and young adults range from serious neurological damage to physiological and autoimmune injury.
Merck, which manufactures the HPV vaccine Gardasil, used by 120 countries including the UK and US, has agreed to pay $50million (£37million) to settle 200 lawsuits. Only one claim remains outstanding, it is reported.
Gardasil and Gardasil 9 are Merck’s second best-selling products, designed to protect against HPV which is sexually transmitted. It had total global sales of $8.58billion (£6.4billion) in 2024 and nearly 160million doses were distributed in the United States through the end of 2022, federal data show.
Gardasil was dubbed in some circles as the ‘let’s pay for Vioxx’ drug, meaning that Merck had a $4.85billion (£3.6billion) compensation bill to settle in 2007. Around 60,000 victims brought injury claims against Vioxx, an arthritis painkiller with sometimes fatal side effects of heart attack and stroke.
To date, Merck has denied Gardasil can cause serious injury, calling it ‘safe and effective’ and ‘the best protection against cervical cancer’.
Despite these claims, lawsuits were filed after adolescents reported devastating side effects shortly after receiving one or more jabs. Recipients need a total of three injections to induce full protection, it is recommended.
Injuries flagged in the lawsuit include postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, which causes dizziness and fainting on standing, chronic pain, abdominal pain, brain fog, blurred vision, weakness, fatigue, headaches, heart palpitations, chest pains, exercise intolerance, nausea, fatigue, bladder dysfunction, insomnia, sweating abnormalities, weakness and tremors. Also, premature ovarian insufficiency, which reduces a woman’s chance of conception by up to 90 per cent, premature menopause, seizures and other auto-immune disorders.
Victims also report chronic fatigue (CFS) syndrome, but CFS has been rejected as a side effect by health authorities such as the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control in the US, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in the UK, and the European Medicines Agency in the EU.
In America, Gardasil was introduced to 11- and 12-year-old girls in 2006, and to 11- and 12-year-old boys in 2009. By 2010, individuals began filing petitions to the US government’s National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP), the equivalent of the UK government’s Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS).
As the NVICP began rejecting claims, claimants began to pursue civil litigation against Merck. This is unusual as vaccine manufacturers enjoy immunity from prosecution in the US. Using product liability laws, instead of claiming the jab was defective, the plaintiffs side-stepped the immunity by alleging Merck failed to properly disclose certain risks associated with the vaccine.
In March 2025, litigants suffered a bitter blow after a federal judge ruled in favour of Merck. Claimants had accused it of concealing the risks of Gardasil by not listing the disabling side effects in its public information leaflet. Merck and its scientists claimed they had a ‘paucity’ of evidence for a causal connection between Gardasil and the alleged symptoms. Labelling also went against federal law, Merck claimed and the judge agreed.
The case was heard, and dismissed, by Judge Kenneth Bell in North Carolina’s district court. In a 35-page decision, he wrote. ‘Federal law requires more than speculative inferences prior to adding dire warnings to lifesaving vaccines that discourage their use. That evidence is lacking here.’
The claimants refused to be ignored and moved their case to California where Merck attempted to reject the lawsuits but were denied. The case was scheduled for jury trial in Los Angeles state court this year. This time, lawsuit allegations included allegations of fraud. Merck decided to settle rather than risk a trial which could have cost billions.
The $50million compensation feels like a big win, but the Pharma giant enjoyed a $66billion (£49.10billion) turnover in 2025, meaning it could offer far more.
Consultant solicitor Peter Todd, a British lawyer for Scott-Moncrieff & Associates, said: ‘It means each claimant would be receiving somewhat less than $250,000 [£186,000] including costs. Merck said this sum was less than what it would cost them to successfully defend the claims, and therefore it was a pragmatic decision without any admission of liability.
‘If the claimants had succeeded at trial, no doubt they would have been seeking compensation in the hundreds of millions, or even billions, under the relatively generous US measure of damages.’
British children received GlaxoSmithKline’s Cervarix HPV jab between 2008 and 2012, then Gardasil from 2012. The reasons given for the change are that Gardasil protects against more HPV strains including HPV 6m, the strain that causes genital warts, HPV 16 and 18 that cover most cervical cancers, as well as five other strains.
Cervarix is also alleged to cause devastating side effects and TCW covered the stories of two women who say their lives have been destroyed by the jab. Read their stories here and here.
Todd tried to bring a class action against GlaxoSmithKline to claim compensation in 2009, but legal aid was denied and now the ten-year limit to claim has passed. He said: ‘There is a hard cut-off and no way to extend that. Our only option is to claim from the government Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme. I’d like to do that for them to get recognition at least.
‘In my view, this settlement does not change the prospects for any HPV vaccine injured or bereaved people in the UK. I would encourage claimants to seek compensation via the UK statutory compensation scheme under the Vaccine Damage Payment Act 1979, assuming they are still in time to do so.
‘However, I very much doubt that we shall see any group litigation here against the HPV vaccine soon, not least because claimants would need very deep pockets to be able to bring a claim. The UK is not an amenable jurisdiction to claimant vaccine injury litigation due to the challenges of funding and the weakness of the Consumer Protection Act 1987 which completely fails to achieve its supposed aim of providing redress to victims of defective pharmaceutical products.’
Mary Holland, CEO of the US activist group Children’s Health Defense, and co-author of The HPV Vaccine on Trial with Kim Mack Rosenberg and Eileen Iorio, said: ‘The HPV vaccine remains on trial, even though this litigation has ended in settlement. Many considerations go into settlement; that is understandable.
‘The Gardasil vaccine, however, continues to leave a terrible trail of tragedy in its wake.
‘People must continue to decide for themselves, based on the evidence, and not rely on corporate and government recommendations.
‘Merck documents and plaintiff expert reports that resulted from this litigation speak volumes; they are available to the public and to bold lawyers willing to take on this cause in the future.’
Merck did not respond to requests for comment.
Read TCW‘s abridged serialisation of The HPV Vaccine on Trial here and here.
