Glaxo wins UK contract for cervical cancer vaccine

LONDON: GlaxoSmithKline PLC, the world's second-largest drug maker, won a British government contract to supply its cervical cancer vaccine for its national immunization program for girls.

Glaxo said that Cervarix will be used in a Department of Health program to vaccinate girls aged 12 to 13 from September. It also will be made available to girls aged 14 to 18 in a catch-up program that will be implemented over the next two to three years.

Financial terms were not disclosed. The vaccine was chosen over Merck & Co. and Sanofi-Pasteur's Gardasil, which is the standard treatment in many European Union countries.

Glaxo's shares rose 2 percent to 1,102 pence (US$21.56) on the London Stock Exchange. Cervarix immunizes against strains of the human papillomavirus that cause most cases of cervical cancer.