Gov. Perry minimized HPV drug maker's financial donations, report shows

BySommer Ingram
singram@dallasnews.com
11:52 AM on Tue., Sep. 13, 2011

A report released today suggests that in last night's GOP presidential debate Gov. Rick Perry downplayed his financial connections to the company that manufactured the hotly-disputed HPV vaccine the governor once tried to make mandatory for middle school girls.

The report by Texans for Public Justice shows that Merck, the manufacturer of the Gardasil vaccine, gave $28,500 to Perry from January 2006 until June 2011. Additionally, the pharmaceutical giant contributed $377,500 to the Republican Governors Association, which Perry chaired. That's $406,000 in all.

Mike Toomey, formerly a top aide to Perry, was a Merck lobbyist--a fact that presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann hammered Perry on in last night's debate, suggesting that was the motivation behind Perry's push for the vaccine.

Perry brushed of Bachmann's attacks, saying that he'd only gotten $5,000 in campaign contributions for his gubernatorial race and was offended that he could be bought for such a "low amount."

It's true that Merck had contributed $5,000 to Perry's campaign in 2006--on the same day his staff met for a briefing on HPV. Perry aides have said the timing was coincidental. But the fact remains that since that donation, Perry has benefitted from a significant amount of financial support from Merck, and his GOP rivals aren't likely to let those details go unnoticed.

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