'Urgent Need' For HPV Vaccine In Developing World, Opinion Piece Says

Main Category: Cervical Cancer / HPV Vaccine
Article Date: 21 Nov 2008 - 8:00 PST

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While officials in the United Kingdom and the U.S. are "dithering and doubting" over issues related to GlaxoSmithKline and Merck's HPV vaccines, "there is an urgent need" for Gardasil and Cervarix in developing countries, Sarah Boseley -- health editor at London's Guardian -- writes in an opinion piece. Worldwide, there are about 500,000 cases of cervical cancer each year and a nearly 50% death rate from the disease, Boseley writes. She adds, the "real damage done by this horrible disease is in the developing world," where about 80% of cervical cancer deaths occur. Most of these countries lack cervical cancer screening programs and surgery or drugs to treat cervical cancer, Boseley writes. In such countries -- where "the women who die are often mothers and breadwinners, leaving struggling families" -- the "simple vaccine ... could transform their prospects," according to Boseley.

The problem is that "Merck charges $360 for the three-dose vaccine course" for Gardasil, "presumably needing to recoup the $100 [million] it is said to have spent on marketing in the U.S. on top of development costs," Boseley says. Although GSK's Cervarix is priced slightly lower, "this is still out of reach for countries in Africa and Asia," she writes. Merck has committed to donating enough vaccine to immunize one million girls and women in the developing world, "[b]ut the anticipated demand, should an affordable vaccine become available, is for the immunization of 58 million girls in 60 countries by 2020," according to Boseley.

Boseley continues that the Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunization last month "was expected to support global rollout of the cervical cancer vaccine," but in "the face of global financial meltdown, there were nerves about the chances of raising enough money for a program that will have to begin in schools." She writes that GAVI "has negotiated a cost in principle from the drug companies of less than $10 a head, of which governments would pay just 30 cents," although a "big new funding campaign among donor countries would still be needed." Boseley concludes, "But when we are spending so much vaccinating girls whose risk of cancer is really pretty low, surely offering the same chance to girls whose lives could genuinely be saved is a no-brainer" (Boseley, Guardian, 11/19).

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