THE KASAULI-BASED CENTRAL DRUGS LABORATORY RELEASES CERVICAL CANCER VACCINE

Three batches of approximately 80, 000 doses of HPV vaccine have been released by the Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh, sources said to ANI.

This is the first made-in-India Human Papillomavirus (HPV) "CERVAVAC" vaccine, for the prevention of cervical cancer.

According to sources, to fight against cervical cancer in India, the govt is likely to launch a program to administer the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to girls aged nine to 14 years in six states.

CEO of the Serum Institute of India (SII) Adar Poonawala, in an exclusive interview with ANI, had said that he briefed Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya about the HPV vaccine.

"I had come to brief the Union Health minister about it. We'll wait for the govt program to roll out," he had said. "Our capacity is very small this year but we'll build a large capacity to take care of the entire nation's needs for the next year," Poonawala said.

"We will slowly roll it out through government programs this year. I can't comment on pricing now. We will wait for tendering process & follow govt protocols," said Adar Poonawala on vaccine pricing.

On 24 January, SII launched the first made-in-India HPV vaccine for cervical cancer. The launch took place in the presence of Home Minister Amit Shah, Adar Poonawalla, and the Director of Government & Regulatory Affairs at Serum Institute of India, Prakash K Singh.

'CERVAVAC' is an outcome of a partnership of DBT and BIRAC with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, supported by Serum Institute of India Private Limited for the indigenous development of quadrivalent vaccine through its partnership program 'Grand Challenges India'.