Public Health, Civil Society Organizations Launch Global Initiative To End Cervical Cancer

Main Category: Cervical Cancer / HPV Vaccine
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 13 Jul 2007 - 6:00 PDT

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A coalition of 13 civil society and public health organizations on Friday at the World YWCA International Women's Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, announced the launch of a new initiative that aims to ensure every woman and girl has access to human papillomavirus vaccines, as well as cervical cancer screening and treatment, the Accra Daily Mail reports.

About 500,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer annually, and about 80% of the cases and deaths are among women in developing countries because of limited screening and treatment, according to the Daily Mail. Organizers of the initiative, called the Global Call To Stop Cervical Cancer, are calling on governments to make cervical cancer a priority in national development and health budgets; multilateral agencies to accelerate regulatory processes for treatments; international donors to ensure that new vaccines and diagnostics are widely accessible; and businesses to provide low-cost supplies of new technologies.

According to the Daily Mail, Global Call organizers launched the campaign at an HIV/AIDS-focused conference to encourage HIV/AIDS and cervical cancer advocates to collaborate on strategies to expand access to prevention and treatment. HIV-positive women are about four times as likely as HIV-negative women to develop precancerous lesions that can lead to cervical cancer, the Daily Mail reports (Accra Daily Mail, 7/10). About 77% of HIV-positive women also are infected with HPV, according to Florence Manguyu, senior policy adviser for the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.

HPV Vaccine Delivery
According to Kenya's Daily Nation, ongoing studies in Uganda, Peru, India and Vietnam examining best practices for delivering HPV vaccines might be presented to HPV vaccine manufacturers for price reductions (Gathura, Daily Nation, 7/10). The global health group PATH in June 2006 launched a five-year program that is using a $27.8 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to conduct research in the four countries about ways to reduce potential hurdles for distribution of HPV vaccines in developing countries (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 4/5).

Merck's FDA approved HPV vaccine Gardasil in clinical trials has been shown to be 100% effective in preventing infection with HPV strains 16 and 18, which together cause about 70% of cervical cancer cases, and about 99% effective in preventing HPV strains 6 and 11, which together with HPV strains 16 and 18 cause about 90% of genital wart cases, among women not already infected with these strains. GlaxoSmithKline's HPV vaccine Cervarix, which has been approved in Australia and is under review by FDA, also has shown to be 100% effective in preventing infection with HPV strains 16 and 18. According to preliminary data from a Phase III clinical trial, published last month in the journal Lancet, Cervarix also provided significant protection against HPV strains 31, 45 and 52, which together account for about 12% of cervical cancer cases (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 7/10).

Comments
"The world cannot afford to wait for new HPV vaccines and screening tests to eventually trickle down from wealthy countries to developing countries where women need these lifesaving products," Ariel Pablos-Mendez, a managing director at the Rockefeller Foundation, said, adding, "Cervical cancer is largely preventable, so we must not let women die for want of access to these products."

Betty Tett, chair of the Kenya Women Parliamentary Association, said, "Cervical cancer is entirely preventable, so it is unacceptable that women in developing countries do not have access to new innovations in preventing and treating this disease," adding, "Political leaders must prioritize cervical cancer to ensure that all women, no matter how rich or poor, have access to new medical technologies that can save their lives" (Accra Daily Mail, 7/10).

France To Reimburse 65% of Gardasil's Cost
In related news, Sanofi Pasteur, a joint company of Merck and Sanofi-Aventis, on Wednesday said that 65% of the cost of Gardasil will be reimbursed for all 14-year-old girls in France, Reuters reports. Reimbursements also will be given to girls and women ages 15 to 23 who have not had sex or who started having sex in the year prior to vaccination. Gardasil, which is administered in three doses, will cost 135.59 euros, or about $186.40, per dose in France (Reuters, 7/11). Australia, Germany and Italy also have offered similar reimbursements for Gardasil, and several other European Union countries are expected to do so, Dow Jones reports (Berton, Dow Jones, 7/11).

"Reprinted with permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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