Vaccine information

Cervarix® is the trade name of the vaccine that is given to girls through Scotland’s Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) immunisation programme. It protects against the two types of HPV that cause most cases of cervical cancer. These are types 16 and 18.

Find out more about how HPV causes cervical cancer.

Cervarix® boosts the body’s natural defence system and creates antibodies to combat the virus. It’s made from protein particles that act in the same way as the virus, but don’t cause any infection or disease.

Cervarix® is given by an injection in your upper arm in three doses. You get the second injection a month after the first, and the third injection six months after the first.

Clinical trials

GlaxoSmithKline, the company that makes Cervarix®, carried out clinical trials involving 20,000 young women aged 15-25. Everyone who took part was checked regularly for over five years to make sure the vaccine was safe and did what it was supposed to – protect against HPV.

Some women who were given the vaccine were already infected with either HPV type 16 or 18, but Cervarix® stopped them getting the other type.

Another trial checked how much the vaccine boosted the immune system of 5,000 girls and women aged from 10 to 55. Cervarix® gave them all more antibodies to fight HPV, but 10-14 year old girls had twice as many as older women.

The trials found Cervarix® had some mild side effects that are quite common with vaccines.

Find out more about health issues linked to Cervarix®

The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) licensed Cervarix® for use in the UK in 2006. The effects of the vaccine continue to be monitored.

Find out more about Cervarix® from the Electronic Medicines Compendium (EMC) Patient Information Leaflet (external link).