India will soon have an indigenously-developed vaccine to fight cervical cancer. Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla tweeted that the company is planning to launch it this year.
He wrote: "For the first time, there will be an Indian HPV vaccine to treat cervical cancer in women that is both affordable and accessible."
The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) granted SII the market authorisation to manufacture the Quadrivalent Human Papillomavirus vaccine (qHPV) the vaccine today. Poonawalla in his tweet thanked the government body for granting approval.
The approval by the drug regulator was followed by a recommendation by the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on COVID-19 of the CDSCO on June 15. Serum Institute applied to the DCGI seeking market authorisation of the qHPV after the phase 2/3 clinical trial was completed with the support of the Department of Biotechnology.
Cervical cancer is the second most frequent cancer among Indian women in the age group 15-44. Every year in India, 122,844 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 67,477 die from the disease.
As of now, there are three HPV vaccines on the market and they have been licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).