Back stories here.
But which is better? Gardasil or Cervarix? Fight! (only understood by Dr. Harry Hill fans!)
GlaxoSmithKline will release the first study to compare its cervical cancer vaccine with Merck’s blockbuster Gardasil, more than a year after completing the research.
Sales for Glaxo’s Cervarix amount to less than 10 percent of those garnered by Merck’s similar vaccine. The comparison study may influence which vaccine doctors use and insurers pay for. It will be presented for the first time at HPV2009 in Malmö, Sweden on May 10, according to a draft of the program obtained by Bloomberg News.
The study also will help governments determine which of the vaccines to select for immunizing women, influencing a global market that Glaxo estimated at more than $10 billion last year.
Glaxo’s shot, used less often than Gardasil in Europe, hasn’t won approval in the U.S., where Merck began selling its version three years ago.
Glaxo’s decision to wait 14 months to release the data and pick a little-known medical meeting as the venue “certainly has both my eyebrows up,” said Arthur Caplan, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Bioethics, in Philadelphia.
“Half the world is waiting to see which vaccine is the better one,” Caplan said. “You have a huge ethical obligation to get information out quickly. I’m never a fan of releasing key findings on a highly contentious issue, such as who’s got the better vaccine, at a relatively unknown meeting.”
But which is better? Gardasil or Cervarix? Fight! (only understood by Dr. Harry Hill fans!)
GlaxoSmithKline will release the first study to compare its cervical cancer vaccine with Merck’s blockbuster Gardasil, more than a year after completing the research.
Sales for Glaxo’s Cervarix amount to less than 10 percent of those garnered by Merck’s similar vaccine. The comparison study may influence which vaccine doctors use and insurers pay for. It will be presented for the first time at HPV2009 in Malmö, Sweden on May 10, according to a draft of the program obtained by Bloomberg News.
The study also will help governments determine which of the vaccines to select for immunizing women, influencing a global market that Glaxo estimated at more than $10 billion last year.
Glaxo’s shot, used less often than Gardasil in Europe, hasn’t won approval in the U.S., where Merck began selling its version three years ago.
Glaxo’s decision to wait 14 months to release the data and pick a little-known medical meeting as the venue “certainly has both my eyebrows up,” said Arthur Caplan, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Bioethics, in Philadelphia.
“Half the world is waiting to see which vaccine is the better one,” Caplan said. “You have a huge ethical obligation to get information out quickly. I’m never a fan of releasing key findings on a highly contentious issue, such as who’s got the better vaccine, at a relatively unknown meeting.”
Hmmm! Wonder what the results might show?
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