The first vaccine to prevent cervical cancer won US approval today.
US officials cleared the new Merck vaccine called Gardasil for girls and young women aged nine to 26.
It blocks certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV), a common sexually transmitted virus that causes genital warts and most cases of cervical cancer. The disease that kills about 300,000 women worldwide each year.
"This vaccine is a significant advance in the protection of women's health," Acting Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach said.
Given in three doses over six months, Gardasil targets four HPV types believed to cause more than 70 per cent of cervical cancer cases and 90 per cent of genital warts.
Merck said the vaccine would be available within weeks. Industry analysts said Gardasil should help revive struggling Merck with annual sales that could top $2 billion.
The wholesale price will be $120 a dose, Merck said. HPV infects about half of sexually active adults sometime during their life, but is usually harmless. It can, however, cause abnormal cells in the cervix lining that can turn cancerous.
Most cervical cancer deaths occur in developing countries. In the United States, widespread screening often catches the disease early when it is treatable, but about 4,000 women still die from it each year.
In Merck's studies, Gardasil prevented nearly 100 per cent of precancerous lesions in the cervix, vagina and vulva, as well as genital warts caused by the HPV types the vaccine targets.