The vaccine, Gardasil, is the most promising product brought to market by drugmaker Merck in years.
Even Gardasil, one of the most exciting drug company inventions of recent years, illustrates this trend.
Gardasil, a vaccine for the virus that causes cervical cancer, experienced a slow in growth.
In previous clinical trials, Gardasil was shown to work at preventing infection with the HPV virus.
Gardasil, made by Sanofi Pasteur MSD, is the most widely used of the two vaccines.
There were 21 cases of precancer or cancer in the placebo group, compared with none for those taking Gardasil.
The biggest challenge for Gardasil comes because of the target market: adolescent girls.
But although there has been a movement among some groups to portray Gardasil as unsafe, there is little evidence.
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Merck helped create the controversy over Gardasil with heavy lobbying efforts to state governments when the vaccine was launched.
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Of course, Merck made matters worse with a sneaky campaign to have Gardasil listed on mandatory vaccinations across the country.
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The main reason seems to be cost restructuring and the success of diabetes drug Januvia and cervical cancer preventative Gardasil.
Merck ( MRK - news - people )'s HPV vaccine, Gardasil, now heavily promoted for cervical cancer.
Finally, she is working with Merck to design a study to see if Gardasil can affect HPV infection in the throat.
Clinical trials and post-marketing monitoring of Gardasil, made by Merck, and Cervarix, made by GlaxoSmithKline, showed side effects similar to placebo.
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Perhaps the most promising is Gardasil, a vaccine that would prevent cervical cancer by immunizing women against the human papilloma virus.
The impetus was FDA approval of Gardasil, the Merck vaccine, for treating girls and women between the ages of 13 and 21.
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His latest anti-vax screed is an attack on Gardasil, the HPV vaccine.
We expect established drugs like Januvia, Janumet, Isentress and Gardasil to continue to gain sales on broader usage and lend support to growth.
It has two new hits in Gardasil, its new vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, and Januvia, which is already outperforming many older diabetes drugs.
This year it has launched five new medicines and vaccines, including Januvia to treat diabetes and Gardasil to prevent the virus that causes cervical cancer.
Besides Gardasil, another choice is Cervarix, which is marketed by GlaxoSmithKline.
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But Gardasil, which the Department of Health has now opted for, also protects against HPV types six and 11 which cause nearly all genital warts.
Gardasil, however, is already the source of all sorts of controversy.
The vaccine, Gardasil, is the most promising product brought to market by drugmaker Merck (nyse: MRK - news - people ) in years.
But victories, he argues, will allow investors to once again focus on promising experimental medicines, like Gardasil, a vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, and a new diabetes pill.
Similarly, Merck has done well since the Vioxx debacle, launching big drugs like Januvia for diabetes and Gardasil to prevent strains of the virus that causes cervical cancer.
When the national immunisation project was announced, there was some controversy about the selection of Cervarix over Gardasil, which is used by the majority of vaccination programmes worldwide.
But Gardasil's approval also draws Merck into a new controversy.
About half received Gardasil, the other half received a placebo.
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