Pharmaceutical industry rejects Trump’s order to split MMR vaccine
Major drugmakers including Merck and GSK, alongside the American Academy of Pediatrics, argue that separating the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine into three shots lacks scientific basis and would require costly development of non-existent products.
The pharmaceutical industry has swiftly rejected a US executive order signed by Donald Trump requiring the split of the combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three separate shots. The directive, part of a broader policy push by Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to reduce the number of vaccines children receive, was condemned by major manufacturers and medical organisations as unscientific and impractical.
PhRMA, the leading pharmaceutical industry group representing companies such as Merck, GSK, Pfizer, and Sanofi, issued a statement within hours of the order’s signing. PhRMA Chief Medical Officer Michael Ybarra stated that the directive debases America’s vaccine policy, arguing that imposing a narrower schedule based on foreign recommendations would lower protection standards. Ybarra emphasised that federal vaccine recommendations are built on decades of rigorous scientific research and public health expertise.
Merck and GSK, which currently produce the MMR vaccines used in the US, explicitly stated there is no published scientific evidence that separating the MMR vaccine improves safety or efficacy compared to the combined shot. Both companies noted that individual vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella do not currently exist in the US market. Realising the order would require pharmaceutical companies to make significant new investments in developing, testing, and bringing entirely new vaccines to market.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, which called the order dangerous and misleading, is leading a lawsuit against previous changes to federal childhood vaccine recommendations under the Trump and Kennedy administration. In March, the academy and other medical groups won a temporary injunction reversing most of those changes. The current MMR combination vaccine has a decades-long track record of safety, effectiveness, and convenience.
Robyn Blumner, president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry, criticised the administration’s disregard for evidence-based science. Blumner described the order as an example of the administration’s hostility toward data-driven policy, arguing that public health decisions should not be based on the personal beliefs of individuals without backgrounds in science or medicine.
