City district holds lottery for anti-cancer drug

Residents of a district in Hangzhou, East China’s Zhejiang province, have been told they must enter a lottery if they want to receive a popular vaccine that can prevent cervical cancer, due to high demand.

Xiaoshan district’s center for disease control and prevention said women must register online using their real names if they want to enter the lottery for vaccination with Gardasil 9, a nine-way HPV vaccine that was approved for use on the mainland by China’s top regulator in April.

At the first draw, held in the district’s public health center on Sept 17, 186 of the 885 women who applied were selected to receive vaccinations. The lottery was conducted under notarial supervision, according to Xiaoshan CDC.

Those who were chosen had five days to go to the community health center where they were registered, with their ID cards, if they still wanted to be vaccinated, the center said.

Any women who missed out the first time can wait for the next draw, which will continue until supply problems ease, or opt to receive a two-way or four-way HPV vaccine, which are still in stock.

Health authorities in Xiaoshan resorted to a lottery system to ensure fairness due to a shortage of Gardasil 9, which US-based pharmaceutical company MSD holds a monopoly over.

The nine-way HPV vaccine is in short supply in many areas of China, according to a report by Beijing-based newspaper the Beijing News.

Some hospitals and clinics in the capital started taking appointments for vaccinations in early September, but later began imposing restrictions due to the large number of applicants, the report said.

The cost of receiving the vaccine varies from place to place, according to the newspaper, although a patient can expect to pay about 4,000 yuan ($582) for the full, three-dose treatment.