The Narendra Modi government will encourage young girls to get vaccinated against cervical cancer, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Thursday while presenting the interim budget. The announcement stated that the government plans to promote vaccination of girls aged 9 to 14 with the purpose of preventing cervical cancer.
The announcement by the Ministry of External Affairs comes as the government is already in talks with Serum Institute of India (SII), the country’s leading vaccine manufacturer, for the procurement of vaccines. The government’s move assumes significance as the market price of the two-dose vaccine hovers around Rs 2,000 per dose, which not everyone can afford.
“We may take steps to reduce the price of the HPV vaccine,” a senior government source said.
Another official informed of the matter told News18 that the government is already in talks with SII to purchase domestically produced vaccines at subsidized prices.
The government plans to roll out subsidized doses around September once Pune-based SII is ready to supply around Rs 6 crore of vaccine. The cost of HPV vaccine procured by the government is estimated to be about one-tenth of the market price, around Rs 200-250. For girls, the vaccine may be free, but plans are in the works for the same.
Last year, SII launched indigenous HPV vaccine Cervavac in India. There are two other vaccines available for global license in India – Merck & Co’s quadrivalent vaccine Gardasil and GlaxoSmithKline’s bivalent vaccine Cervarix. The SII vaccine is priced at Rs 2,000 per dose, while Gardasil-4 costs around Rs 4,000 per dose and Gardasil-9 costs around Rs 11,000.
HPV is a sexually transmitted viral infection that is linked to cervical cancer in women and affects the lowermost part of the uterus.
May be launched from September
The federal government will begin rolling out reduced-dose HPV vaccines once the SII is ready to deliver more than 60 million doses, according to a second official.
“The company is stepping up production. These requirements have been communicated to the vaccine manufacturers, and we expect to have a vaccine launch by the second half of this year, around September.”
“The age group of 9 to 14 years accounts for one-third of India’s population and about 1.25 billion girls in each age group need two doses of vaccine. Overall, we may need around 150 million doses to vaccinate this age group with two doses. doses of vaccine. A full announcement from the campaign will likely be made after the election, during the full-term budget period in July.”
News18 contacted SII but the company declined to comment.
Meanwhile, SII CEO Adar Poonawalla took to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to express his appreciation for the finance minister’s statement.
“I applaud the Government of India’s announcement to vaccinate girls between the ages of 9 and 14 against cervical cancer. Let’s commit to preventing HPV and ensuring easy access to vaccination…”
Why is the HPV vaccine important?
Recently, a Scottish study demonstrated that cervical cancer can be prevented with the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine.
A new study from Public Health Scotland has found no cases of cervical cancer among women who were fully vaccinated against HPV. This follows the launch of a human papillomavirus (HPV) immunization program for girls aged 12 to 13 in Scotland in 2008.
Although cervical cancer is largely preventable, it remains the second most common cancer in India, according to Indian government data.
In 2022, India launched Cervavac, the first locally developed HPV vaccine for the prevention of cervical cancer, produced by the Serum Institute of India.
According to the latest estimates, about 125,000 women in India are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year and more than 75,000 die from the disease. In India, about 83% of invasive cervical cancers are attributed to HPV 16 or 18.
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