Health Highlights: Feb. 20, 2007

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors ofHealthDay:

Merck Ends Push for Cervical Cancer Vaccine Laws

Facing adverse reaction from parents, doctors and advocacy groups, Merck and Co. said Tuesday that it would stop lobbying state governments for laws mandating that pre-teen girls be vaccinated against cervical cancer.

TheWall Street Journalreports that Merck, which makes the vaccine Gardasil to protect against the human papillomavirus (HPV), had initially been successful in convincing such state leaders as Texas governor Rick Perry to order the vaccinations.

But Gardasil is expensive, theJournalreports -- $360 for a three-dose regimen -- and HPV, believed to cause most of the cases of cervical cancer in the United States, is spread through sexual contact. Many parent and advocacy groups had objected to the vaccine, because it might have forced them into talking about subjects they weren't ready to discuss with their daughters. And because the vaccine's approval is new, some physicians expressed concern about possible side effects.

TheJournalquotes Merck's executive director of medical affairs, Richard Haupt, as saying the company had decided that the adverse reaction was a distraction from the original goal of immunizing as many women as possible. Merck has "decided at this point not to lobby for school laws any further," the newspaper quotes Haupt as saying.

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Supreme Court Snuffs Huge Tobacco Settlement

The U.S. Supreme Court has reversed a $79.5 million punitive-damages award to an Oregon widow whose husband had smoked for 45 years, theAssociated Pressreported Tuesday.

The 5-4 decision reversed a ruling by the Oregon Supreme Court against tobacco maker Philip Morris USA. The earlier verdict had favored Mayloa Williams, whose husband, Jesse, died of lung cancer nearly a decade ago.

In Tuesday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling, justices speaking for the majority said the earlier ruling could not stand because the Oregon jury hadn't been told that Philip Morris could only be sanctioned for harm done to the plaintiff, not to other smokers and their families, theAPreported.

The decision didn't address Philip Morris's contention that the award had been unconstitutionally excessive, the wire service said.