GSK’s Cervarix™: A New, Broader Cervical Cancer Vaccine
June 29, 2007 by Gloria Gamat
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
Cervarix™ is the cervical cancer vaccine candidate of GlaxoSmithKline which have been previously known to protect from human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18.
Now, an Australian study of under 150 Perth women included in a major international research at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research proved that the new Cervarix vaccine provides broader protection against cervical cancer because it also demonstrated additional protection against infectious from other strains of HPV that account for another 10 percent of cervical cancers.
According to co-author Dr Rachel Skinner, who headed the Perth trial:
“We have found through this study that this vaccine is extremely effective in the prevention of pre-cancerous disease of the cervix due to infection with HPV types 16 and 18.
However we now have evidence that Cervarix offers women broader protection by providing some protection against infections caused by HPV types 45 and 31. These types together with HPV types 16 and 18 account for 80 per cent of cases of cervical cancer worldwide.”
Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration approved Cervarix™ last month (May 2007) for women aged 10-45 years, making it the first vaccine in Australia available for women over the age of 26 years.
The results of the said trial have been published yesterday in the prestigious international journal The Lancet.
Find more details from the full report.
