Doctors give thumbs-up to domestically made HPV vaccine

The domestically made vaccine for cervical cancer Gardasil 2 is in abundant supply and highly effective, so women should choose it for timely protection instead of waiting for imported vaccines, which have been in short supply, local doctors said.

Gardasil 2 protects women from HPV types 16 and 18, the two types that cause the majority of the virus-related cancers. The imported vaccines are Gardasil 2, 4 and 9. Gardasil 4 and 9 also protect women from other types of HPV.

"Since Gardasil 4 and 9 are imported and protect women from more types of HPV, they are more popular among young women. However, the waiting time is also long due to the short supply," said Dr Yang Fang from Shanghai Ren'ai Hospital's vaccination department. "Long vaccine production time and women's rising demand are the major cause for the short supply."

Yang said the domestically made vaccine also has its advantages, so women should choose domestic products.

The price of the domestic vaccine is less than half that of imports, and laboratory tests indicate its efficacy is superior. Women between the ages of 9 and 45 is eligible for Gardasil 2, between the ages of 20 and 45 for Gardasil 4 and between the ages of 16 and 26 for Gardasil 9.

"In terms of protection from cervical cancer, Gardasil 2, 4 and 9 are almost the same," Yang said. "So we suggest women get the domestic vaccine for earlier protection while the imported vaccines are in such short supply."

Ti Gong