Quadrivalent HPV vaccine snapped up by the public

The quadrivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has enjoyed high popularity since it appeared on the market, Beijing Youth Daily reported.

A woman gets vaccination at a hospital in Henan Province on November 14, 2017. [Photo: IC]

It has won bidding in 11 provinces and municipalities at present, including Yunnan, Henan, Chongqing, Heilongjiang, Jiangxi, Hubei, Guangxi, Hunan, Sichuan, Fujian and Ningxia.

According to Chongqing Zhifei Biological Products, the exclusive agency of Merck & Co for the quadrivalent HPV vaccine, there exists a "vaccine buying spree" phenomenon due to tight supplies during the initial listing stage.

The number of people making appointments to get quadrivalent HPV vaccines within half a month has exceeded 27,700 in Changsha. The supply of vaccine is not adequate to meet the demand, so people have to wait in line by making appointments at many community health centers, and some have to wait until next year.

Conversely, few people show interest in the bivalent vaccine.

Having taken seven to eight years to complete clinical trials of the HPV vaccine, the bivalent and quadrivalent HPV vaccines eventually appeared on China's biopharmaceutical market.

Chongqing is the first city that brought the quadrivalent HPV vaccine into the market in China. Three doses of the HPV vaccine cost 2,856 yuan ($430).

Some securities traders predict the scale of the vaccine market is expected to surpass 30 billion yuan.

Song Kai, chief analyst at the Huachuang Securities research institute, indicates that the market scale would run up to more than 20 billion yuan based on a hypothesis that 5 percent of women aged 20 to 45 are willing to get vaccinated.

The Zhongtai Securities research report is relatively more optimistic. It indicates that the market can be worth up to 32.3 billion yuan in terms of the prediction of a 5 percent penetration rate and 2,400 yuan for every three doses.

Cervical cancer is the first cancer that has a certain pathogeny, which is a persistent infection of the high-risk HPV virus. Getting an HPV vaccine is the most effective way of preventing an HPV infection and developing cervical cancer.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been merely purchasing nine-valent HPV vaccine since April 2016. The bivalent and quadrivalent vaccines haven't been supplied since the end of 2016 in the United States.

Qiao Youlin, research director at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences of Cancer Epidemiology in Guangdong province, notes that the nine-valent vaccine has just obtained permission to develop clinical trials in China, but it would take less time for it to go on the market compared to bivalent and quadrivalent vaccines.

At present, people can get a nine-valent HPV vaccine in Hong Kong that costs approximately HK$7,000.