An advisory panel to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday recommended the cervical cancer vaccine Cervarix for use in girls and women.
If approved for widespread use, the vaccine, made by GlaxoSmithKline PLC, would join Merck & Co.'s Gardasil, which gained approval in 2006, Dow Jones Newswires reported. The CDC currently recommends that Gardasil be offered to girls 11 and 12 years old, since the vaccine is most effective before the onset of sexual activity.
Cervarix gained approval last week from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which recommended the shot for females ages 10 to 26. Both Cervarix and Gardasil protect against strains 16 and 18 of the human papilloma virus (HPV), thought to be the cause of nearly 70 percent of all cervical cancers.