October 6, 2005
Pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. says one of its experimental vaccines has been shown to prevent two common forms of cancer. The vaccine, called Gardasil, was developed to protect against a virus associated with genital warts and cervical cancer.
According to Merck, the vaccine stops cells on the cervix from becoming pre-cancerous and also blocked the development of a cancer that occurs on the surface of the cervix. The company does not yet have approval from the Food and Drug Administration to market the vaccine, but said it would seek that permission by the end of the year.
Merck cites a study of women to make its case for the vaccine.
It says none of women in the study who were inoculated with the vaccine developed pre-cancerous cells or cancer, while 21 of the women who took a placebo developed pre-cancerous changes in their cervix cells. There were about 12,000 women between the ages of 16 and 26 were in the study.
According to the American Cancer Society, more than 10,000 U.S. women develop cervical cancer each year.
