Sanofi Pasteur MSD's HPV vaccine approved in Europe

Sanofi Pasteur MSD, a joint venture between the vaccines division of France's Sanofi (Euronext: SAN) and US pharma giant Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK), has received marketing authorization from the European Commission for its Gardasil 9.

Gardasil 9 is a 9-valent human papillomavirus [HPV) vaccine for active immunization of people from the age of nine years against premalignant lesions and cancers affecting the cervix, vulva, vagina or anus and also against genital warts caused by the HPV types covered by the vaccine.

This follows the positive opinion given by the European Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use granted in March 2015. Gardasil 9 was shown to be 97% effective in preventing high-grade lesions of the cervix, vagina and vulva caused by the five additional oncogenic HPV types (31, 33, 45, 52, 58). In addition, the vaccine was shown to elicit antibody responses against HPV types 6, 11, 16 & 18 that were non-inferior to Gardasil, which is currently the leading HPV vaccine.