International health experts called on Tuesday for rapid worldwide access to promising but expensive cervical cancer vaccines that have the potential to save a quarter of a million lives a year.
Merck & Co. Inc.’s recently launched Gardasil and GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s Cervarix, which is expected to be approved next year, protect women against human papillomavirus (HPV), the virus that causes most cases of the disease.
They are likely to be embraced in rich countries but uptake in the developing world — where 80 percent of cervical cancer deaths occur — is uncertain, given their high price and potential resistance to vaccinating girls aged 9 to 13 years against the sexually transmitted virus.
The call for global access came at a conference in London bringing together 60 health experts from multilateral agencies, government, charities and the drug industry.
“There is usually a 15 to 20 year delay between the time that new vaccines are approved in the West and the time they reach developing countries,” said Nothemba Simelela of the International Planned Parenthood Federation.
“The world cannot afford to wait 20 years to begin saving women from cervical cancer.”
Death rates from the second most common female cancer are increasing in the developing world, where more than 95 percent of women never have a cervical smear test.
Price critical
Price will be a key factor in determining how quickly the new vaccines are used in poor countries.
Gardasil costs $375 in the United States and $397 to $477 in Europe for a course of three injections. Glaxo’s product is expected to be priced similarly.
Officials from Merck and Glaxo attending the conference said they would cut the cost for developing nations substantially but stopped short of promising a not-for-profit price.
Julian Lob-Levyt, secretary-general of the GAVI Alliance, said the price needed to come down to below $10 in the long term.
“That’s the kind of figure that the poorest countries are indicating to us, but we are prepared to subsidize the price at the outset in anticipation that it then declines,” he told Reuters.
GAVI — a partnership for vaccines grouping governments, the World Bank and the private sector — was likely to formally endorse use of the new HPV vaccines in the next 12 to 18 months, he added.
Gardasil and Cervarix are the first vaccines for cancer and consequently set an important strategic precedent for the international community.
In the past, the world has been used to giving simple shots against childhood diseases that cost a few pennies -- but that model is changing as more complex vaccines are developed.
“It’s just a matter of time before other vaccines will be out there for cancer ... and hopefully it’s just a matter of time before we have a vaccine for HIV/AIDS,” said Howard Zucker, assistant director-general for health technology at the World Health Organization.
“This should be a model for the future when other vaccines come to market.”
