BRUSSELS, April 21 -- The European Patent Office (EPO) on Tuesday honored the late Chinese cancer researcher virologist and molecular biologist Jian Zhou and Australian immunologist Ian Frazer for developing world's first cervical cancer vaccine.

Praised by the EPO in a statement, "The method is ground-breaking because it focuses on prevention, which can be life-saving, in particular for women without regular access to healthcare."

For this achievement, Jian Zhou and Ian Frazer today have been named finalists for the European Inventor Award 2015 in the category "Non-European Countries."

"Jian Zhou and Ian Frazer are unsung heroes of modern medicine," said EPO President Benoit Battistelli upon announcing the finalists.

"In their fight against cervical cancer, they focused on the cause rather than on the symptoms of the disease. Developing a vaccine has saved countless lives and also saved many women from a protracted and painful course of treatment, involving surgery and chemotherapy," Benoit Battistelli added.

Introduced by the EPO, it took almost 15 years until the cervical cancer vaccine was ready for market. In 1991, working at the University of Queensland, Zhou and Frazer filed a patent application for the missing link between the genuine virus and the artificially produced "representative".

"This was a milestone achievement for the now-widely available HPV vaccines," the EPO said in a statement.

In 1995, Zhou and Frazer started cooperating with US pharmaceutical company Merck & Co to develop the vaccine, called Gardasil. In 1998, after three years of testing, the scientists completed the first Gardasil trials on humans with outstanding results. A cycle of three injections offers full protection against HPV for up to five years. After Jian Zhou's unexpected death at the age of 42 from hepatitis, Ian Frazer continued their joint work until the vaccine was ready for market.

The European Inventor Award is presented annually by the European Patent Office since 2006.

The award honors inventive individuals and teams whose pioneering work provides answers to the challenges of our age and thereby contributes to social progress, economic growth and prosperity. Fifteen finalists and, subsequently, the winners are chosen from among the nominees by a high-profile international jury.