A British schoolgirl died yesterday, a few hours after getting a shot of a vaccine designed to prevent cervical cancer. It’s still unclear whether the vaccine, GlaxoSmithKline’s Cervarix, contributed to the girl’s death. More than 1.4 million people have been given the vaccine in the U.K. since an immunization program launched last year, and there have been no reports of deaths linked to the vaccine, the Times of London reports . Cervarix isn’t approved for use in the U.S. Glaxo first applied for FDA approval of the vaccine, which protects against the virus that causes cervical cancer, in 2007 . But the vaccine has faced

multiple delays, as the FDA has asked for more information. The FDA was supposed to respond to Glaxo’s latest application by today, but the company said the FDA won’t meet that deadline. The FDA misses these sorts of deadlines fairly regularly. The agency hasn’t indicated to Glaxo that the latest delay is related to the death in the U.K., Dow Jones Newswires reports . An FDA panel recently backed the vaccine. Merck’s cervical cancer vaccine, Gardasil, has been approved in the U.S. since 2006. Photo: iStockphoto

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Cervical Cancer Vaccine: A Death in U.K., Delay at FDA