Merck Annual Shareholder Meeting

Human Life International and Children of God for Life Team Up Once Again At Merck Shareholder Meeting – Win Over 60 Million Voter Shares in Pro-Life Resolution Victory

April 27, 2004

(North Branch, NJ)  The strategy was simple.  Appeal to their hearts and if that fails, appeal to their wallets.

“As stockholders in Merck we are particularly distressed at the violation of human rights that occurred in the early 1960s in the development of two cell lines, the RA 27/3 and the WI-38, which were used to create the MMR vaccine. We are even more distressed that this same pattern of human rights violations continues to take place with the PER-C6 cell line that Merck has taken license for in developing a new AIDS vaccine”, said Fr. Euteneuer in his opening statements at the annual Merck Shareholder meeting on April 27th in North Branch, NJ.

He continued a relentless pounding of Merck’s unethical behavior by admonishing the board, “The RA 27/3 obtained its tissue from the last in a line of 27 babies who were deliberately aborted in a controlled setting in order to extract the live virus. These cell lines were thus created at the cost of dozens of innocent human lives with the full knowledge of Merck researchers.”

Gilmartin’s face blanched and the room fell silent as Fr. Euteneuer concluded, “We ask Merck for two things: full disclosure about the nature of Merck’s involvement in this gruesome business, and the withdrawal of the unethical vaccine from the market as soon as possible.”

He then turned the microphone over to Ms Vinnedge who surprised the fidgeting board members by stating, “On behalf of over half a million parents and medical professionals nationwide who have joined our Campaign for Ethical Vaccines, I would like to begin by thanking you Mr. Gilmartin and the members of the Board for bringing your ethically produced single dose measles and mumps vaccines back to the market last summer.”

She then went on to propose a plan whereby Merck could, “increase its sales, parents could vaccinate their children in good conscience and society could be protected further from infectious disease.”  But if Merck thought they were getting off easy, Vinnedge dashed those hopes by warning the company, “It won’t be long before there are ethical alternatives from your competition and the forerunners in that endeavor will be the big financial winners…. Mr. Gilmartin, you just stated that Merck is living by your founder, George Merck’s creed to ‘do the right thing and the rewards will follow’, so I ask you now to live up to that pledge.”

As Ms. Vinnedge handed the microphone back to Fr. Euteneuer, he questioned Mr. Gilmartin if he would disclose the fact that aborted fetal cell lines were indeed used in these vaccines to the shareholders and the public.  Butt he was cut short while Gilmartin began reading his prepared statement, completely avoiding the questions and challenges put before him.  After reading the recommendation by Merck to vote against this resolution, he opened the floor for questions and comments.

From the back of the room, came CeCe Minsky’s comments, “Mr. Gilmartin I am completely shocked by this information that aborted babies have been used to create these vaccines.  I have 11 grandchildren sir and I can’t let them have such a vaccine.”

From another gentleman who seemed confused about why some of the vaccines were ethically produced while others were not, “I have heard a lot here about these aborted fetal cell lines and then ethical alternatives.  Isn’t there another way to make these vaccines and if so, why aren’t you using them?”  Mr. Gilmartin’s response was to state that, “This is not exactly the time to address this issue.”

And yet another shareholder took the microphone next commenting, “I’m Catholic and my wife had a miscarriage.  It seems there could be ways to make use of this instead of using aborted babies”  Mr. Gilmartin chose to ignore his suggestion as well and merely nodded.

At the conclusion of the remaining resolutions presented for consideration the preliminary votes were counted. In order to continue pursuing the Merck resolution, 3% of the vote would be needed. Early numbers which are not final since they do not include all proxy statements indicated that the HLI Resolution had won by gaining over 60 million votes with 4.38% of the shares.

Despite the victory, perhaps one of the most troubling aspects about the shareholder meeting came from the company’s own admission that they had partnered with the Bill Gates Foundation, one of the most notorious supporters of Planned Parenthood worldwide, in order to fight the HIV epidemic in Africa.  Merck intends to use the aborted fetal cell line PER C6 to develop its new HIV vaccine.

And oddly enough, while Merck boasted about its major plans to expand scientific technology for the future, including tapping into resources using the Human Genome Project, an ethical and problematic concern in itself, they still have no plans to modify their 30 year-old  technology for vaccines using aborted fetal cell lines.  Clearly, it seems that Merck is out of touch with reality in both its scientific and moral business practices.