Cancer vaccine price cut
03 Dec 2008
JOHANNESBURG — A major pharmaceutical company has reduced the cost of a vaccine for the virus that causes cervical cancer by about R250, it said yesterday.

“In a developing country such as South Africa, affordability is an important issue,” said GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) SA’s general manager, David Pritchard.

GSK reduced the price of its vaccine, Cervarix, from R700 a dose to R450. The vaccine prevents infection by the human papilloma virus (HPV), which is the major cause of cervical cancer, a prevalent form of cancer among South African women.

Martha Molete of the Cancer Association of South Africa welcomed the announcement. “We welcome all efforts to prevent cancer. We encourage them to drop the price even further.”

However, the vaccine requires three doses and at the reduced price, it will still cost R1 350.
“It’s not accessible to most of the population,” she said.

Molete says the government does not have a plan to distribute the vaccine.

She also pointed out that most medical aid societies, including her own, do not provide for HPV vaccines.

Dr Peter Koll, a Sandton gynaecologist, applauded the move. “I can tell you of the devastation and pain and even about the unnecessary loss of life that inevitably accompanies a prognosis of cervical cancer,” he said.

Symptoms of late-stage cervical cancer are vaginal bleeding between periods and after intercourse or a pelvic examination, or unusually heavy periods.