A long wait

In 2006, Gardasil, the world’s first HPV vaccine produced by Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD), was approved by the U.S. Government. Since then Gardasil has been used in more than 100 countries and regions around the world, effectively reducing the risk of cervical cancer worldwide.

But in the Chinese mainland, the HPV vaccine rollout was delayed because of lengthy clinical trials. “Some of my colleagues started to pay attention to HPV vaccine some time ago. Many of them chose to go to Hong Kong for it because they didn’t see any possibility that it would be available on the mainland sometime soon,” Liu Ran told Chinafrica, “As far as I know, the optimum age for receiving HPV vaccine is before 25. I’m 26 now, so I don’t have time to wait. I need to secure my health as soon as possible.”

Dr. Wang Shaoming from the Institute of Oncology of Peking Union Medical College, suggested in a paper published in the international academic journal Vaccine that supposing HPV vaccine applies to women aged nine to 15, the seven-year gap between 2006 to 2012 will mean 59 million Chinese females lost their best chance of access to the vaccine. Among them, 380,000 would likely get cervical cancer and 210,000 would die from the disease if no intervention measure like regular screening is taken.

So why did it take so long for the Chinese mainland to approve the HPV vaccine? One important reason is that it has a different drug approval system. Under the Chinese law of drug registration, clinical trials designed for Chinese people are obligatory before a foreign pharmaceutical