NOW Applauds the FDA for Approving the First Vaccine for Cervical Cancer

Statement of NOW President Kim Gandy

June 8, 2006

The National Organization for Women congratulates the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approving a vaccine that could save hundreds of thousands of women from cancer-causing strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV).

In manufacturer Merck's clinical trials, the vaccine, Gardasil, proved nearly 100 percent effective in preventing the HPV strains responsible for about 70% of cervical cancer cases. According to researchers, if the vaccine works as well as it has in the trials, it could reduce global deaths from cervical cancer by two-thirds, from 290,000 to about 90,000.

Every year cervical cancer kills about 3,700 U.S. women.

Religious and political extremists have expressed much opposition to the HPV vaccine. They claimed that the availability of the vaccine would lead to promiscuity among young women. NOW is elated that common sense prevailed in the approval of this vaccine. This also has personal meaning to me - I lost my grandmother to cervical cancer, and have two daughters who might be spared that fate with this vaccine.

In trials this vaccine has proven to be effective against the most dangerous strains of HPV. The next step is to urge the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to recommend the vaccine as part of the regimen of pre-puberty vaccines, since HPV is spread primarily through sexual contact.

The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will now discuss the usage of Gardasil. The committee will debate between mandatory vaccination just prior to puberty or selective vaccination of young people considered "at risk." The latter option would entail a questionable invasion of privacy to determine who is or may become sexually active, assuming those behaviors could even be reliably predicted.

We hope the CDC will carefully debate this issue and come down on the side of the health of protecting the health of women and girls. Today, however, we are happy that women across the United States can look forward to better reproductive health.

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For Immediate Release
Contact: Mai Shiozaki, 202-628-8669, ext. 116; cell 202-641-1906

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