The following study comes from the Clinical Infectious Diseases: An Official Publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. It was published in November 2014. Here it is below: http://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/25416754/Long_Term_Persistence_of_Zoster_Vaccine_Efficacy_ Here are the conclusions: CONCLUSIONS Estimates of vaccine efficacy decreased over time in the LTPS population compared to modeled control estimates. Statistically significant vaccine efficacy for HZ Burden of Illness persisted into year 10 post-vaccination, whereas statistically significant vaccine efficacy for Incidence of HZ persisted only through year 8.
The point is the efficacy declines in 8 years which means we'll probably need a booster jack@ss. It also means, that customers may not like the fact Merck pushed a vaccine that only had a 51% overall efficacy and will not drop even more since it's approval. This is not a blockbuster vaccine. It is barely mediocre yet we spend more than half our time selling it like it's a cure for cancer. That's the point!
Check out this article about GSK's Shingles Vaccine below. In their phase III trials, their vaccine appears to reduce the risk of shingles in patients 50 and older by 97.2%. That's far superior than Zostavax. Merck does all the work with a half @ss shingles vaccine and GSK is probably going to come in and take over the market. Well done Merck leadership. No wonder Todd Nichols left and Dr. Gerberding has been shuffled to another position within Merck. Both tried to over promise on an underwhelming vaccine. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/18/us-gsk-shingles-idUSKBN0JW1F820141218
Considering we have spent years telling docs you only need one dose, you will look like @ss having to explain why you now may need to give 2 doses. What about reimbursement genius? Will Medicare D reimburse or private health insurance reimburse for 2 doses? No guarantee. Zostavax sucks, period and there is a better shingles vaccine coming from GSK. What's your smart@ss answer to that jackass?
If you are a vaccine rep no wonder the vaccines aren't selling. What a biological misfit. Understand immunology and you might just might be effective. I would fire your ass immediately!
You obviously never sold this vaccine. You have no idea what you are talking about when it comes to this particular vaccine. Get lost troll and find some friends that care.
The fact that Merck leadership or Marketing is saying very little about this new data to the sales force is pretty telling.
If parents can't get their precious kids in for 3 doses of a cancer vaccine do you really think adults are going to get themselves in for doses of a shingles vaccine?
what's there to say beyond what they've told us? no other information has been released dumb@ss. GSK has not been able to launch a chickenpox vaccine or mmr vaccine so why would we think they are going to get this right? they hyped up cervarix too, and its the worst selling vaccine available