what they said (Hover the mouse cursor over underlined words for more info)

A vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline successfully blocks the virus that causes most cases of cervical cancer, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Friday.

In documents posted online, the FDA said Cervarix - Glaxo's vaccine against human papilloma virus or HPV - successfully blocked the two most cancerous strains of the virus nearly 93 per cent of the time...

The original article can be found at: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/09/04/hpv-vaccine-cervarix.html

how did it rate? (more information)

what we said (Hover the mouse cursor over underlined words for more info)

The spokesperson from the company marketing this vaccine says: "Protection against cervical cancer is a very important health need for girls and young women, and we believe Cervarix has an important role to play in addressing this."

The problem is that the story doesn't contain adequate detail to establish this 'important health need' and why this vaccine is better than its comparator. If we are to really understand how this treatment should be used, readers need to be provided with more details on the trial evidence and quantified benefit and harms. The fact that the introduction of Cervarix to the US market was delayed awaiting 'further data' should be a red flag, indicating that there are safety issues needing clarification.

public forum

voice your opinion in the forum

• All comments and feedback submitted to Media Doctor are subject to editorial approval before being made viewable by the public. It may take up to a week for your comments to be approved. Additionally, no response will be given to questions posed in public comments. Media Doctor does not provide medical advice, or answers to medical questions posed by the public.
• If you provide your email address it will not be displayed to the general public.
• Comments may be edited by Media Doctor to remove defamatory or sensitive statements, and brand names.
• Required fields are marked with an asterisk (*).