India's HPV Vaccine Arriving in 2023

In the global fight against cervical cancer, India recently learned its first locally produced human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine may arrive in 2023.

Serum Institute of India (SII) 's CEO Adar Poonawalla informed the media on October 19, 2022, his Prune-based company will begin delivering limited quantities of CervaVac next year.

It is the first quadrivalent HPV vaccine made in India and would become the least expensive HPV vaccine available in India.

In a previous statement, SII stated it is offering CervaVac at a lower price because of the company's philanthropic philosophy and to protect underprivileged children worldwide.

Poonawalla explained to the media the delayed launch was necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, reported Livemint.

"The HPV facility was used by the Covid-19 vaccines during the pandemic."

"We've used the original HPV vaccine building for the CovoVax vaccine."

CovoVax is SII's new protein-based COVID-19 vaccine.

"That's why we had to delay the larger launch to next year," Poonawalla informed the media.

However, CervaVac exports will have to wait till 2024.

SII is the world's largest vaccine manufacturer by volume and has plans to increase manufacturing capacity to over 150 million to enable an international launch. And hopes to get World Health Organisation (WHO) prequalification in 2024.

Science and Technology Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh previously informed VOA... vaccination against HPV is the most promising initiative to prevent cervical cancer.

Joshi, who also leads the WHO's HPV vaccine study at Jehangir Clinical Development Center in Pune, commented on September 20, 2022: "The awareness about cervical cancer prevention in India, which includes vaccination and cervical cancer screening, is dismally low."

"It is advised that adolescent girls get HPV vaccinations and that women between the ages of 30 to 49 get cervical cancer screenings, even if they have no symptoms," she added.

CervaVac protects people against HPV types 6, 11, 16, and 18 and already has approval from the Drugs Controller General of India for domestic use of the HPV vaccines.

In India, cervical cancer is the second-most common cancer, especially among women between 15 and 44 years of age.

Additional HPV vaccine news is posted at PrecisionVaccinations.com.HPV.

Note: This article was manually translated and curated for mobile readership.