The invention of the vaccine Gardasil earned Ian Frazer and his late Chinese colleague Jian Zhou the Popular Prize at the European Inventor Award 2015. The public's choice was clear, with the Australian-Chinese research team receiving more than 32% percent of the 47 000 votes cast online. Ian Frazer and Xiao Yi Sun, the widow of his late co-inventor, received the prize at an award ceremony at the Palais Brongniart in Paris, attended by more than 400 international guests.

 

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women, and one of the deadliest. But thanks to the Australian-Chinese research team there is hope: the two researchers developed Gardasil, the first vaccine against cervical cancer. The vaccine is ground-breaking because it focuses on prevention, helping to protect girls and women against various types of HPV, which are the cause of most cases of cervical cancer.

 

Gardasil is now used in 121 countries and has been administered more than 125 million times. The WHO and public health agencies in Australia, Canada, Europe and the US recommend vaccination against HPV for young women aged nine to 25.

 

(Source: EPO)