Exclusive-Kennedy played a key role in the vaccine case against Merck By Reuters

By Dan Levine and Mike Spector

(Reuters) – Robert F. Kennedy Jr. played an important role in organizing many cases against the drug maker Merck (NS:) over its Gardasil vaccine, a plan that faces its first trial in a Los Angeles court next week, according to two attorneys close to the case and court documents.

Kennedy, who ended his presidential campaign last year in support of Donald Trump, is awaiting confirmation as Secretary of the US Health and Human Services (HHS). The section would give him direct authority over the special jury that pays the damages.

The details of the Gardasil cases show how Kennedy acted without spreading doubts about the safety and efficacy of vaccines in the court of public opinion and helping to build a case against the pharmaceutical industry before judges and courts.

Kennedy, a longtime plaintiffs’ attorney, became involved in the Gardasil case in 2018 in partnership with Robert Krakow, an attorney who specializes in vaccine injury cases, Krakow said.

Under US law, such cases must be filed in a special vaccine court run by HHS that aims to process claims quickly, but to limit compensation and reduce the liability of vaccine manufacturers.

That practice has frustrated top lawyers who represent hundreds or thousands of plaintiffs in tort cases with the potential to reap millions, and sometimes billions, of dollars in company payouts.

Krakow saw grounds for suing Merck directly over its papillomavirus vaccine Gardasil after dealing with other injury claims in vaccine court. He believed there was also evidence that Merck had falsely advertised Gardasil as safe, exaggerating its benefits while hiding knowledge of its dangerous side effects.

Kennedy advocated this strategy among a network of influential lawyers who have taken on large corporations through other products, Krakow said.

“It was a powerful force,” Krakow told Reuters. Kennedy’s presence at Gardasil policy meetings helped spark the interest of lawyers Krakow would not have been able to recruit on its own, he said.

Kennedy did not respond to requests for comment on the Gardasil case and has not said whether he would change the vaccine’s coverage as health secretary. It is unclear whether Kennedy would receive any fees from the Gardasil cases, as usual.

Merck did not comment on Kennedy’s role in the lawsuit, which it says is irrelevant.

Gardasil is recommended as a routine vaccine for 11- and 12-year-olds by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to prevent cervical and other viral cancers. About 160 million doses were distributed in the United States until the end of 2022, federal data show.

“A large body of scientific evidence, including more than 20 years of research and development, continues to support the safety and efficacy data of our HPV vaccines,” Merck said in a statement to Reuters. “We remain committed to vigorously defending against these allegations at a future hearing.”

‘BOBBY TEACHED US’

Michael Baum is one of the high-profile lawyers that Kennedy has promoted to pursue the Gardasil cases. The two became friends as neighbors in the affluent town of Malibu outside Los Angeles, and were already collaborating on a case. Monsanto (NYSE: ) weed killer Roundup, Baum said. The case eventually won a $289 million judgment that was later reduced.

At first Baum did not know that vaccine claims could be completed outside of the state-run compensation system through traditional litigation.

“It’s an expensive, outrageous thing for lawyers and experts to fight a major vaccine manufacturer,” Baum told Reuters. “Bobby taught us.”

The first trial will begin on January 21 in federal court in Los Angeles, the day after Trump’s inauguration. Jennifer Robi, 30, was injected with Gardasil when she was a teenager and says the shot left her in a wheelchair.

The vaccine court rejected Robi’s compensation claim in 2015 because the alleged injury was not shown to be related to Gardasil.

Robi sued Merck in 2016 and included embezzlement among the charges. Kennedy, Baum and several other attorneys began representing him in 2018. They have since filed similar fraud claims in other Gardasil lawsuits, court records show.

About 200 Gardasil lawsuits have been combined to enter multiple counties before a North Carolina judge from 2022. Kennedy is the attorney of record for some of those cases.

Despite their long-standing alliance, Baum and colleagues asked a Los Angeles judge to block Kennedy’s name from appearing before the jury.

Kennedy “is not” an attorney working on the case, they wrote to the court in November, and his relationship with Trump “poses risks that could create strong political views or bias.”

The judge ruled that Merck’s defense team could ask about Kennedy’s relationship with one of Robi’s expert witnesses, a former employee of the nonprofit he founded. Children’s Health Defense. The judge said the question could only refer to him in that context, and “Mr. Kennedy,” not his full name.

As HHS Secretary, Kennedy could remove individual vaccines from the vaccine court. Plaintiffs’ lawyers can sue manufacturers directly and pursue many claims from the beginning, said Dorit Reiss, a professor at UC Law San Francisco.

Such an increased risk could prompt vaccine makers to raise prices or pull the product from the market, said John Grabenstein, a consultant and former director of Merck’s vaccine supply chain who is not involved in the Gardasil case.

Krakow opposes removing any vaccines from the special court, which he says helps low-risk consumers who don’t have the power to sue drug makers. He said he emailed Kennedy a week after the November presidential election to discuss modest changes to the system.

Kennedy’s response: “Let’s talk about it after Jan. 20.”