If you ask public relations departments, the answer is simple. Press releases from the University of Rochester in New York, Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and Queensland University in Brisbane, Australia, have claimed responsibility for original work leading to the Merck or GlaxoSmithKline vaccine. The two vaccines are nearly identical, based on the ability of the L1 protein of the papillomavirus to self-assemble into virus-like particles (VLPs) that elicit neutralizing antibodies.