French health minister Xavier Bertrand said on Friday that France would subsidise during the first half of 2007 the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil, a product developed by Sanofi-Aventis and Merck & Co Inc.

"We will subsidise it. Why? Because it's a major step towards improving the health of the public," Xavier Bertrand told French radio station Europe 1.

"We have already got the process under way and before the end of the first half of 2007, before July, it will be subsidised," he said.

The Gardasil vaccine is available in the United States and in 13 European Union countries. Some analysts estimate that the market for treating cervical cancer is worth more than $US2 billion ($A2.6 billion) in sales.

Gardasil was designed by former Australian of the Year, Professor Ian Frazer.

©AAP 2007

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