The World Health Organization recommends vaccinating all girls aged 9 –14 against HPV to reduce the risk of cervical cancer. Yet significant challenges remain, including a hesitancy to vaccinate young girls against a sexually transmitted disease like HPV, a perceived lack of urgency since symptoms of infection may take decades to present, and the high cost of the vaccine.
Indeed, price is a barrier for scaling up HPV vaccine in a number of countries around the world. For the Philippines project, Merck charged MSF around $14 per dose—so $28 for the two doses needed to vaccinate each young girl. That’s the same price it charges the government of the Philippines, which is doing a phased introduction of the vaccine in some of the poorest provinces rather than a nationwide rollout, in part due to the high cost. There is also currently an HPV vaccine shortage, which poses an additional concern.