On June 5th, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a five-year, $27.8 million grant to PATH for program research in India, Peru, Uganda, and Vietnam intended to inform country decisions about HPV vaccine introduction to prevent cervical cancer. PATH will help plan for and pilot introduction in the four countries, with the goal of informing regional and global vaccine introduction efforts and international financing plans. They will work in partnership with the national governments, Merck, and GlaxoSmithKline and will coordinate closely with other key stakeholders including the World Health Organization, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, Harvard University, and the Catalonian Institute of Oncology.For more information, see the PATH press release.Update: The Lancet has published an editorial on the roll-out of HPV vacines that emphasizes the need for PATH to focus on cultural as well as economic barriers.
