Merck: doubly awkward

Drug companies have no room for the squeamish or the prudish. Take Gardasil. Merck’s blockbuster vaccine against several strains of HPV, a virus that causes cervical cancer, got a big boost from a study this week showing it may be useful in preventing head and neck cancers. So what’s the fuss? Well, the virus is sexually-transmitted and, for maximum effectiveness, the vaccine should be administered to teenagers. The link between HPV and head and neck cancer isn’t new - studies in the early 1990...