Mumbai: MSD, the Indian arm of the American pharmaceutical company Merck, has ended its collaboration with the digital marketing firm Schbang due to its involvement in a controversial publicity stunt featuring actor and model Poonam Pandey.

Merck manufactures the Gardasil vaccine, which guards against HPV strains linked to cervical cancer. This decision was prompted by the emergence of news regarding the publicity campaign. Certain social media posts implied MSD's connection to the stunt.

As per a report in the Economic Times, an MSD spokesperson stated that the partnership was terminated due to conflicts of interest.

On February 6, venture capitalist Mahesh Murthy connected Schbang to Poonam Pandey and MSD's HPV vaccine in a LinkedIn post. He shared a link indicating that the awareness campaign had garnered over 43 million YouTube views and had been shared by several influencers.

Gardasil has been on the market in India since 2008. Gardasil 9, which targets nine HPV strains, is priced at Rs 10,850 per dose, while the quadrivalent Gardasil is priced at Rs 4,000 per dose.