Scientific completion of India’s first indigenously developed vaccine for eliminating cervical cancer announced.

September 2, 2022

Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh announced the scientific completion of India’s first indigenously developed quadrivalent HPV vaccine.
It is India’s first indigenously produced affordable and cost effective qHPV vaccine for eliminating cervical cancer.
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.
Despite being largely preventable, cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer among women globally, according to the WHO.
In 2018, an estimated 570,00 women were diagnosed with the disease and it accounted for 311,000 deaths across the world.
India accounts for about a fifth of the global burden of cervical cancer, with 1.23 lakh cases and around 67,000 deaths per year.
Cervavac was developed by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India in coordination with the Government of India’s Department of Biotechnology (DBT).
HPV vaccines are given in two doses and data has shown that the antibodies that develop after both are administered can last up to six or seven years.
Until now, the HPV vaccines available in India were produced by foreign manufacturers at an approximate cost of Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,500 per dose.
Cervavac is likely to be significantly cheaper, slated to cost approximately Rs 200 to 400. It has also demonstrated a 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.