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The Narendra Modi government will encourage vaccination for young girls for prevention of cervical cancer, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Thursday as she presented the interim Budget. According to the announcement, the government is planning to push for vaccination for girls in the age group of 9 to 14 years with the objective of prevention of cervical cancer.
Amid the FM’s announcement, the government is already in talks with leading domestic vaccine maker Serum Institute of India (SII) for the procurement of doses. The government’s move holds importance as the market price of the vaccine hovers around Rs 2,000 per dose for the two-dose vaccine, which is not affordable for everyone.
“We may take steps that bring down the price of HPV vaccine,” said a top government source.
Another official, privy to the development, told News18 that the government is already engaged in negotiations with SII to purchase the home-grown vaccine at subsidised prices.
Once Pune-based SII is prepared to deliver approximately six crore doses, the government plans to roll out the subsidised doses around September. The cost of the HPV vaccine for government procurement is estimated to be around one-tenth of the market price at approximately Rs 200-Rs 250. For girls, the vaccine could be free but plans for the same are in the works.
Last year, SII launched its indigenous HPV vaccine, Cervavac, across India. Two other vaccines licensed worldwide are accessible in India — Merck’s quadrivalent vaccine, Gardasil, and Glaxo Smith Kline’s bivalent vaccine Cervarix. While the price of SII’s vaccine is Rs 2,000 per dose, the cost per dose for Gardasil-4 is approximately Rs 4,000 and Gardasil-9 is priced at around Rs 11,000.
HPV, a sexually transmitted viral infection, is linked to cervical cancer in women and affects the lowermost part of the uterus.
Rollout May Begin from September
According to the second official, the Union government will start rolling out the subsided doses of the HPV vaccine once SII is ready to deliver more than six crore doses.
“The company is gearing up its manufacturing. The requirements have been conveyed to the vaccine maker and by the second half of the year, around September, we are expecting rollout of doses.”
“The age group of 9 to 14 years consists of one-third of the Indian population and each age group has around 1.25 crore girls requiring two doses. Overall, we may need around 15 crore doses to vaccinate the age group with two doses. The full announcement of the campaign is likely to be done post elections, during the full term budget in July.”
News18 reached out to SII but the company refused to comment.
Meanwhile, SII’s chief executive officer Adar Poonawalla took to social media platform X (earlier Twitter) to appreciate the finance minister’s announcement.
“I applaud the Indian government’s announcement to vaccinate girls aged 9-14 against cervical cancer. Let’s pledge to prevent HPV and ensure easy access to vaccination…”
Why is HPV vaccine important?
Recently, a Scottish study has proved that cervical cancer can be prevented using the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine.
No cases of cervical cancer have been found in women who have received full vaccination against HPV, a new study by Public Health Scotland has found. This follows the initiation of the human papillomavirus (HPV) immunisation programme for girls aged 12-13 in Scotland in 2008.
According to the data by the Indian government, cervical cancer ranks as the second most prevalent cancer in India despite being largely preventable.
In 2022, India launched its first indigenously developed HPV vaccine, Cervavac, for the prevention of cervical cancer manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.
As per the latest estimates, every year, approximately 1.25 lakh women are diagnosed with cervical cancer, and over 75,000 die from the disease in India. Around 83 per cent of invasive cervical cancers are attributed to HPVs 16 or 18 in India.
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