The FDA will consider whether to expand the HPV vaccine for women between 27 and 45 years old, according to a statement from the drugmaker. You may recall that Gardasil is currently approved for use in girls and women between 9 and 26 years old to block four types of humanpapilloma virus, which can lead to cervical cancer and genital warts. A decision is expected this summer.

This, of course, would greatly increase the market for Gardasil. The question then becomes what kind of marketing campaign will Merck employ to promote the vaccine. The news comes, by the way, a year after the controversy over its aggressive marketing push. At that time, Merck attempted to influence Women In Government, which actively promotes the vaccine. Several legislators around the country who belong to the non-profit, which gets support from Merck and other drugmakers, introduced bills that would require mandatory vaccination for pre-teen and teenage girls. (And who can forget the Gardasil beach towel?)

The push caused nationwide attention to the issue of whether a vaccine should be mandated for young girls who must be sexually active to catch HPV. The episode sullied Merck’s reputation, while making many people aware of Gardasil who may not otherwise have learned about the vaccine. The vaccine targets four types of HPV - 6, 11, 16 and 18 - and account for more than 70 percent of all cases of cervical cancer. And CDC estimates that more than 6 million Americans get a new infection of HPV each year.

A Merck spokeswoman tells the Associated Press that researchers found few adult women were infected with all four HPV types, so getting the vaccine would protect them from any of the four they had not contracted. She adds, though, that an advisory committee would consider whether to urge testing for HPV infection before getting the vaccine. Gardasil, by the way, is the only cervical cancer vaccine in the US, and has generated about $1 billion in sales since its June 2006 US launch. Glaxo is awaiting approval of its own vaccine, Cervarix.