Two competing vaccines are available for the Canadian women against HPV, the virus that cause cervical cancer.

Cervarix, a product of GlaxoSmithKline Inc., is expected to be available by early March while, Gardasil, a product of Merck Canada, is already available since 2006.

Barbara Romanowski, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, said that Gardasil and Cervarix are not comparable due to absence of clinical head-to-head study.

While Cervarix protects against infection with two strains of human papillomavirus, HPV 16 and 18, Gardasil offers very good protection for both cervical cancer and genital warts as well.

Dr. Romanowski, informed that the choice of vaccine depends on a woman's age and lifestyle. The competing vaccines which have retail price of about $400, requires three doses each.

The vaccines offer protection against cervical cancer to women who are sexually active and to those who had abnormal Pap tests. Approximately 325,000 abnormal Pap tests are treated with biopsies and surgery. Statistics show about 1,300 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer and about 380 died due to the condition in 2009.