India’s first indigenously developed quadrivalent Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine is being launched on September 1, 2022. The vaccine has the potential of preventing cervical cancer, which ranks as the second most frequent cancer among Indian women between the ages of 15 and 44 years. The Union Minister of Science and Technology, Jitendra Singh, will launch the vaccine at the India International Centre, New Delhi. Adar Poonawalla, the CEO of Serum Institute of India (SII)—the institute that has developed the vaccine—will also be present at the event.
Officials told PTI that the qHPV vaccine developed by scientists at SII, called CERVAVAC, has demonstrated nearly 1,000 times higher antibody response to HPV than the baseline against all targeted HPV types. The response is this robust across all doses and age groups too. The Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI) granted SII with a market authorisation last month, allowing them to manufacture the indigenously developed HPV vaccine against cervical cancer across India.
The DGCI’s approval came following the recommendation by the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on COVID-19 on June 15, after Prakash Kumar Singh, the director (government and regulatory affairs) at SII, applied to the DGCI seeking market authorisation. By the time of this application, the qHPV vaccine had passed the second and third phase clinical trials with the support of the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Department of Biotechnology. The SII and DGCI are now working on ensuring the widespread availability of this vaccine at the earliest for the girls and women of India.
*Image used for representative purpose.