SII increases production of HPV vaccine in sync with government's vaccination drive

The company's plan to expand its vaccine production capacity from 2 million to 3 million doses is now in line with the HPV vaccine against cervical cancer for girls aged 9 to 14, announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the interim budget. This is consistent with the government's efforts to introduce

“Currently, SII has a production capacity of approximately 2-3 million doses of the Cervavac vaccine. Having said that, the company expects to significantly expand this production capacity to reach 60-70 million doses. is our goal,” the spokesperson said. mint. The company did not provide financial or other details about the production increase.

The company announced that it has tied up with the Union Health Ministry for registration of Selvavac vaccine in the pan-India immunization programme. The country's highest advisory body on immunization, the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI), recommended that the vaccine be included in the Universal Immunization Program (UIP).

While discussions about government pricing are still preliminary, inclusion of vaccines in the UIP could dramatically increase their accessibility and impact.

“It would be premature to talk about prices. The Cervavac vaccine is now available on the private market and is seeing a positive response as well. We will continue to raise awareness of this,” he added.

The company had announced that it would produce the first domestically produced vaccine to prevent cervical cancer in 2022. Cervavac will be launched in January 2023 for commercial use and is available in the following private hospitals: INR2,000 yen for 2 doses.

Before the SII vaccine was developed, India mainly imported HPV vaccines manufactured by Merck & Co. Merck's Gardasil vaccine comes in two varieties: the quadrivalent vaccine, known as Quarda-4, and the newer nine-valent vaccine. Gardasil-4 costs approximately INRThe cost per dose of Gardasil-9 is approximately 3,957 doses. INR11,000.

States such as Delhi had initially announced free HPV vaccines for adolescent girls that would be made available at the state-run Delhi State Cancer Institute (DSCI). However, this program was discontinued due to high costs.

Human papillomavirus vaccines protect against infection by certain types of human papillomaviruses. The available HPV vaccines protect against either 2, 4, or 9 types of HPV. All HPV vaccines protect against at least HPV types 16 and 18, which pose the greatest risk of cervical cancer.

According to estimates released on February 1 by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the cancer specialist agency of the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 14.13 million new cancer cases will be reported in India in 2022. Of these, 127,526 had cervical cancer. .

Apart from Cervavac, SII manufactures the meningitis vaccine MenFive. The vaccine has been developed through his 13-year collaboration with SII and global not-for-profit organization PATH, with significant funding from the UK Government. MenFive protects against his five main causes of meningococcal meningitis on the African continent.

The company is also working on developing the first indigenous dengue vaccine, Dengusiil, to bring to market. Following the success of the Phase 1 trial of the dengue vaccine in Australia, SII announced in November 2023 that it would soon begin Phase 1 and 2 trials of the dengue vaccine in India.

SII, which manufactures Covishield, said it is offering the XBB1 variant of the coronavirus vaccine in the US and Europe, which is very similar to the JN.1 variant. The company said it “aims to obtain approval for this vaccine in India.”

Milestone alert!
Livemint tops the charts as the world's fastest growing news website 🌏 click here To know more.

Here is a comprehensive three-minute summary of what Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her budget speech: Click to download!

Published: February 13, 2024, 1:33 PM IST