Glaxo's Cervarix priced on par with Gardasil in UK

LONDON, Oct 2 (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK.L) launched its cervical cancer vaccine Cervarix in Britain on Tuesday, pricing it at the same level as Merck & Co's (MRK.N) rival Gardasil.

Both have a private prescription list price of 80 pounds ($163.4) per dose, or 240 pounds for a course of three shots.

Cervarix, which was approved by European authorities last week, is also on sale in Sweden and Germany. It won approval in Australia, its first major market, in May.

The two vaccines protect against cancer-causing strains of the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV) and are expected by analysts to be multibillion-dollars-a-year sellers.

Gardasil, however, has the advantage of already being well established in leading markets, including the United States, where Cervarix is not expected to win clearance before 2008.

Morgan Stanley analysts said in a note this week that the experience of Australia -- the only significant market where both shots compete -- suggested Gardasil could take a lot more business than Cervarix.

Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee in August rejected state reimbursement for Cervarix, after questioning its cost-effectiveness relative to Gardasil. As a result, Gardasil has 90 percent of the Australian market.

Gardasil, which is sold in Europe via a vaccine joint venture with Sanofi-Aventis (SASY.PA), targets four strains of HPV -- two responsible for cervical cancer and two causing genital warts. Glaxo's product addresses only the two more dangerous cancer strains.

A Glaxo spokesman said reimbursement was often turned down by the Australian authorities initially but the company remained confident reimbursement was achievable.