Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla has said that India’s first indigenously developed quadrivalent Human Papilloma Virus (qHPV) vaccine for the prevention of cervical cancer will be possibly launched by the end of the year and will be made available in an affordable price range of Rs 200-400.
The vaccine would first be made available through the government channel and from next year onwards some private partners would be involved too. According to the officials, the qHPV vaccine CERVAVAC has demonstrated robust antibody response that is nearly 1,000 times higher than the baseline against all targeted HPV types and in all dose and age groups.
Poonawalla also said that a plan to make 200 million doses is in place and the vaccine would be given in India first and only after that it will be exported to other countries. Cervical cancer in India ranks as the second most frequent cancer among women between 15 and 44 years of age.
Union Minister of Science and Technology Jitendra Singh announced the scientific completion of the vaccine, implying that the R&D activities pertaining to the vaccine are complete and the next step would be making them available to the public.
The minister said, “The schemes like Ayushman Bharat have made us think about preventive healthcare and we can now afford it. The Department of Biotechnology has taken a lead in the matter and are in collaborative mode. Scientific efforts at times do not get the scale of recognition they deserve. So this event is to celebrate that scientific completion.”
