GlaxoSmithKline beats out Merck to supply Netherlands with vaccine
Triangle Business Journal
The latest battle between GlaxoSmithKline and Merck over the companies’ rival cervical cancer vaccines has gone to GSK.
GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) said Thursday that the Netherlands has picked Glaxo’s vaccine, Cervarix, for a national program to vaccinate all 12-year-old girls.
Financial terms weren’t disclosed. The Dutch plan is expected to begin in September 2009 and vaccinate 350,000 girls in its first year.
Cervarix is competing with a rival cervical cancer vaccine from Merck (NYSE: MRK) known as Gardasil. The vaccines protect against the human papillomavirus, a sexually transmitted infection that’s the most common cause of cervical cancer.
Governments are interested in the vaccines for national programs – though, notably, Cervarix has yet to win U.S. approval. Gardasil is approved for U.S. use.
GlaxoSmithKline, based in London, has U.S. headquarters in the Triangle, where it employs more than 5,000. Merck, which has headquarters in New Jersey, is building a $750 million vaccine plant in Durham, where it ultimately plans to have hundreds of workers.
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