9‑valent HPV 14‑year protection
A 14‑year Scandinavian cohort found Merck’s 9‑valent HPV vaccine provided complete protection against persistent infection and related high‑grade lesions—strong evidence for durable vaccine impact. This result further shifts the cervical screening landscape as vaccinated cohorts age and high‑grade lesion prevalence falls. (contemporaryobgyn.net)
The Scandinavian long-term follow-up enrolled 2,029 women from Denmark, Norway and Sweden as part of the V503‑021 extension. (tandfonline.com) The per‑protocol effectiveness population comprised 1,628 participants with 10,396.2 person‑years of follow‑up and recorded zero cases of HPV‑16/18/31/33/45/52/58‑related high‑grade cervical dysplasia. (tandfonline.com) Case ascertainment used centralized national health registries, tissue retrieved from national and regional biobanks for PCR HPV typing, and independent pathology adjudication, and potential waning was evaluated using a statistical control‑chart method. (tandfonline.com) The long‑term follow‑up is registered as ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT02653118 (protocol V503‑021), an extension of the V503‑001 base trial registered as NCT00543543. (clinicaltrials.gov) The pivotal randomized base trial (protocol V503‑001) enrolled 14,215 women across 18 countries and administered the three‑dose series on day 1 and at months 2 and 6. (nejm.org) Results and related abstracts (including Kjaer and Pathirana) were presented at the EUROGIN Congress in Vienna, March 18–21, 2026, following Merck’s March 17, 2026 press release announcing the long‑term effectiveness findings. (issuu.com)
