An affordable and indigenously developed HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine to prevent cervical cancer is now ready. The Centre announced CERVAVAC, the country's first indigenously developed vaccine for cervical cancer on 1st September 2022. The vaccine, Cervavac, was developed by the Serum Institute of India (SII) with the support of the Department of Biotechnology.
At a virtual expert roundtable titled, “India Against Cervical Cancer- Role of India’s First Indigenous Vaccine", Urvashi Prasad, Director, Development Monitoring & Evaluation Office, NITI Aayog remarked, “The indigenous vaccine is a big step towards mass vaccination against HPV however misinformation and stigma around cervical cancer needs to be addressed. The need of the hour is to integrate immunisation schemes, systematically and strategically into existing health platforms in partnership with state governments.”
According to Dr Smita Joshi, who was the Principal Investigator for SII’s HPV vaccine study, there is a huge need for stepping up awareness about the disease and the vaccine in the community. “Unlike Covid-19 and the vaccination programme, there is very little awareness about cervical cancer. Overall awareness and screenings are very low in the community and that is a concern. This is a preventable disease and hence a huge awareness programme is required,” Dr Joshi said.
According to several news reports, the government is working on rolling out an HPV vaccination drive, which would be part of the universal immunisation programme, for girls between the ages of nine and 14. Indian Express reported that the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation had said in a June 28 meeting (the minutes were released on July 17): “The indigenously developed qHPV vaccine may be considered for introduction in the UIP as a two-dose regimen… once the HPV WG satisfactorily reviews the requested data.”
HPV is a common sexually transmitted infection. Cervical cancer, caused by the persistence of certain high-risk strains of the HPV virus, continues to be the only type of cancer preventable by vaccines. Two vaccine doses are supposed to be administered to teenage girls before they are sexually active. CERVAVAC, is being touted as the most promising against human papillomavirus (HPV), with HPV types 16 and 18 (HPV-16 and HPV-18) together contributing to approximately 70 per cent of all invasive cervical cancer cases worldwide. About Rapid Global Cancer Alliance: RAPID Cancer Initiative seeks to reduce the impact of cancer in low-and-middle income and developing countries around the world through a multi-pronged approach. It aims at providing "RAPID" solutions to complex challenges in the cancer healthcare space.