Story highlights FDA approves HPV vaccine for adults 27 to 45

Insurance companies may soon cover cost of the vaccine

(CNN) The US Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the use of a human papillomavirus vaccine called Gardasil 9 for men and women between the ages of 27 and 45. The FDA previously approved the HPV vaccine for people age 9 to 26.

"Today's approval represents an important opportunity to help prevent HPV-related diseases and cancers in a broader age range," Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a statement. Based on US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention numbers, Marks said, "HPV vaccination prior to becoming infected with the HPV types covered by the vaccine has the potential to prevent more than 90 percent of these cancers, or 31,200 cases every year, from ever developing."

According to the CDC, about 80 million Americans are infected with some type of human papillomavirus; an additional 14 million are newly infected each year. In fact, the CDC says, HPV infections are "so common that nearly all men and women will get at least one type of HPV at some point in their lives."

Most HPV infections go away on their own, but some remain and can cause cervix, vagina and vulva cancer in women; penis cancer in men; and genital warts, anal cancer and head and neck cancers in both sexes. There are 150 viruses that make up HPV, but most are rare.

Gardasil 9 protects against the nine types of HPV that are responsible for the majority of HPV-related diseases (Types 6, 11, 16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52 and 58). Gardasil 9 was approved by the FDA in 2014; an older version of the vaccine covered only four types and is no longer distributed in the United States, the agency said.

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