'Cervical cancer vaccine to be launched in few months at affordable price'

Indias first indigenously developed quadrivalent Human Papilloma Virus HPV vaccine for the prevention of cervical cancer will be launched in a few months and made available to the people in an affordable price range of Rs 200400 Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla said on ThursdaySpeaking at an event held to announce the scientific completion of the vaccine Union Minister of Science and Technology Jitendra Singh said the vaccine will be affordable and the government will ensure that it is accessible to the common manScientific completion implies that RampD activities pertaining to the vaccine are complete and now the next step of making them available to the public would take placeSingh said Covid has raised awareness about preventive healthcare leading to the development of vaccines like the one against cervical cancerThe schemes like Ayushman Bharat have made us think about preventive healthcare and we can now afford it The Department of Biotechnology has taken a lead in the matter and are in collaborative mode he saidScientific efforts at times do not get the scale of recognition they deserve So this event is to celebrate that scientific completion he saidPoonawalla told reporters on the sidelines of the event The cervical cancer vaccine will be affordable and would be available in the range of Rs 200400 However the final price will be decided after detailed discussions with the governmentThe vaccine would be much much less in price as compared to other vaccines for cervical cancer he saidAlso Read Cervical Cancer breast cancer oral cancer are the most common cancers in IndiaPoonawalla said the vaccine will be possibly launched by the end of the yearFirst the vaccine would be made available through the government channel and from next year onwards some private partners would be involved too he saidPoonawalla also said that a plan to make 200 million doses is in place and first the vaccine would be given in India and only after needs of the country are fulfilled it will be exported to other countriesRajesh Gokhale Department of Biotechnology Secretary said over 2000 volunteers participated across the country for this vaccinePartnerships between privatepublic are becoming very important in such research this cocreation is what is going to make all the difference in the world he saidDr N Kalaiselvi Director General CSIR said this is the first stepping stone and research in the field and it will further continueThis government has taken the most amount of care to come up with this type of innovation making us atmanirbhar she saidAccording to the officials the qHPV vaccine CERVAVAC has demonstrated robust antibody response that is nearly 1000 times higher than the baseline against all targeted HPV types and in all dose and age groupsCervical cancer in India ranks as the second most frequent cancer among women between 15 and 44 years of ageThe Drugs Controller General of India DCGI had in July granted market authorisation to the Serum Institute to manufacture the vaccine against cervical cancerThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever