Cost is preventing boys receiving anti-cancer vaccine for HPV

While national health systems have been pushing to increase the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine uptake among adolescent girls, most of them have failed to provide immunization programs for boys as a result of the costs involved, says an analyst with research and consulting firm GlobalData.

Two vaccines against HPV are currently available – Pharma giant Merck & Co’s (NYSE: MRK) Gardasil and UK pharma major GlaxoSmithKline’s (LSE: GSK) Cervarix, and are marketed as therapies against cervical cancer, with adolescent girls as their primary target population.

Robert Wilson, GlobalData's an analyst covering infectious disease, says a greater understanding has occurred of HPV’s role in other cancers, including anal, penile and oropharyngeal cancer, so much so that it’s been acknowledged that vaccinating males could also protect this population from such conditions.