Breaking News From Pharma & Bio Ingredients
Cervical Cancer Vaccine Seen As Safe
Posted on 2006-05-18 11:13:00
A vaccine that blocks infection by the four virus types that cause most cervical cancers and genital warts appears safe and effective, but may actually increase the chance of disease in some patients, according to Food and Drug Administration documents.
Merck & Co. seeks FDA approval for its Gardasil vaccine against four types of human papilloma virus, or HPV. Two of those four types are believed responsible for about 70 percent of cervical cancer cases. The cancer kills roughly 3,500 U.S. women a year; the other two types cause 90 percent of genital wart cases.
Merck said the vaccine has the potential to reduce the annual number of new cervical cancers worldwide to roughly 150,000, from the current 500,000, and cut global deaths from the cancer by more than two-thirds, to an estimated 90,000.
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