Gardasil is a sub-unit vaccine made by Merke which protects against HPV types 16, 18, 6, and 11. Types 16 and 18 cause about 70% of cervical cancers and may also cause vulvar, vaginal, penile, anal and oropharyngeal cancers. HPV types 6 and 11 cause most genital warts.

The major HPV capsid protein, L1, can spontaneously form virus-like particles that are similar to HPV virions. Gardasil contains recombinant virus-like particles assembled from the L1 proteins of HPVs 6, 11, 16 and 18. This causes a protective antibody response but, since there is no genome, there is no viral proliferation and is no disease. The L1 proteins are made in yeast. In addition Gardasil contains: amorphous aluminum hydroxyphosphate sulfate, yeast proteins,
sodium chloride, L-histidine, polysorbate 80 and sodium borate. The vaccine is administered as three injections over a period of six monthsand appears to be 100% effective against HPV types 16, 18, 6 and 11. In addition, it has 38% efficacy against ten other HPV types that cause more than 20% of cervical cancers.

Cervarix is an alternative HPV vaccine made by Glaxo. It protects against  HPV types 16 and 18 only. Some cross-reactivity against strains 45 and 31 has been shown. Cervarix contains AS04, a proprietary adjuvant containing 3-O-desacyl-4’- monophosphoryl lipid A, that has been found to boost the immune system response. This vaccine contains HPV type 16 L1 protein, type 18 L1 protein, AS04, aluminium hydroxide, sodium chloride and sodium dihydrogen phosphate dihydrate. As in Gardasil, the L1 proteins are recombinant proteins but in this case are made in an insect cell line using a Baculovirus expression system. The L1 protein again spontaneously form non-infectious virus-like particles.

Cervarix results in more than two times more antibodies than Gardasil for HPV  16 and more than six times more for HPV type 18 at seven months in all women aged 18–45 years. On addition, it induced more memory B cells than Gardasil for both HPV types 16 and 18 in women with no detectable B-cell response before vaccination.