Centre, SII to launch cervical cancer vaccine in a few months

India’s first indigenously developed quadrivalent Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine for the prevention of cervical cancer will be launched in a few months and made available to people in an affordable price range of Rs 200-400.

Union Minister of Science and Technology Jitendra Singh on Thursday attended an event held to announce the scientific completion of the vaccine. Scientific completion implies that R&D activities pertaining to the vaccine are complete and now the next step of making them available to the public would take place.

Speaking at the event, Singh said Covid has raised awareness about preventive healthcare, leading to the development of vaccines like the one against cervical cancer.

“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 is in collaborative mode,” he said. “Scientific efforts at times do not get the scale of recognition they deserve. So this event is to celebrate that scientific completion.”

Final price yet to be decided

CEO of the Serum Institute of India (SII), Adar Poonawalla, who was also present, told reporters on the sidelines of the event: “The cervical cancer vaccine will be affordable and would be available in the range of Rs 200-400. However, the final price is yet to be decided”.

Poonawalla said the vaccine will be possibly launched by the end of the year.

First the vaccine would be made available through the government channel and from next year onwards some private partners would be involved too, he said.

Poonawalla also said that a plan to make 200 million doses is in place and first the vaccine would be given in India and only after that it will be exported to other countries.

Rajesh Gokhale, Department of Biotechnology Secretary, said over 2,000 volunteers participated across the country for this vaccine. “Partnerships between private-public are becoming very important in such research, this co-creation is what is going to make all the difference in the world,” he said.

Dr N Kalaiselvi, Director General, CSIR, said this is the first stepping stone and research in the field and will further continue. “This government has taken the most amount of care to come up with this type of innovation, making us atma nirbhar,” she said.

Robust response

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.

Cervical cancer in India ranks as the second most frequent cancer among women between 15 and 44 years of age.

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) had in July granted market authorisation to the SII to manufacture the vaccine against cervical cancer. 

With agency inputs