Gardasil approved -- $360 for 3-dose series

By no means surprising news, but Merck's HPV vaccine, Gardasil, was approved by the FDA earlier today. Here's the initial AP story, courtesy of the Washington Post, followed by the lengthy Merck press release which carries the triumphant headline, "FDA Approves Merck's GARDASIL, the World's First and Only Cervical Cancer Vaccine," a not-so-subtle jab at GSK in winning the race to be first with a licensed HPV vaccine. More importantly, the press release includes the first mention of Gardasil's 'catalog price': $120/dose, with 3 doses required for protection. The press release also announces the launch of www.gardasil.com, which (at least for now) only carries a "Coming Soon" banner.

We'll be watching for the arrival of the next phase of Merck's "Tell Someone" campaign (which we've previously discussed here and here) that will surely promote Gardasil, both in TV ads and on the websites that (so far) have made no mention of HPV vaccines.

Plenty of media coverage tomorrow, no doubt. We'll post some of the best here.