National Immunisation Mission: How indigenous vaccines can go a long way
The locally developed Ceravac can play a critical role in the efficacy of the National Immunisation Mission
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Doctors say that having an India-made low-cost vaccine would help spread the coverage
The first doses of smallpox vaccine lymph arrived in India in May 1802. A three-year-old child from Bombay (now Mumbai) – Anna Dusthall became the first person in India to receive the smallpox vaccine on May 14, 1802.
Till 1850 India was using vaccines imported from Britain until Dr Waldemar Haffkine developed cholera and plague vaccines through clinical trials in India in the late 19th century.
India’s National Immunisation Mission has come a long way since then. But it still needs a sustained supply of indigenously developed vaccines to run the world’s largest universal immunisation programme.
For example, vaccines for human-papillomavirus (HPV) that is known to cause cervical cancer and rotavirus that causes potentially lethal diarrhoea in children could be included in the NIM only after local players developed them at affordable rates.
This July, after over a decade’s hard work, the first indigenously developed HPV vaccine Ceravac received approval from the country’s drug regulator. The vaccine has a two-dose and a three-dose regimen depending on the age of the person.
Co-developed by the Department of Biotechnology and Pune-based vaccine maker Serum Institute of India (SII), the vaccine is expected to cost between Rs 200 and Rs 400 per dose as against the currently available vaccines Gardasil (Merck) and Cervarix (GlaxoSmithKline) that cost Rs 2,000-3,500 per dose.
Affordability is going to be the driver.
“Although there has always been a considerable demand for multinational vaccines, the cost of these has always been a concern. Now with an affordable HPV vaccine available for cervical cancer, a much larger population will have access to the vaccine, which might reduce the incidences of cervical cancer,” Dr Sonal Kumta, Senior Consultant-Obstetrician & Gynaecologist, Fortis Hospital, Mulund, Mumbai.
The government vaccine policy think tank, National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI), has wanted to include the HPV vaccine in the list of vaccines that are part of the NIM for a while. India was, however, waiting for an indigenously developed affordable vaccine to be able to do so.
The concerns stem from the fact that cervical cancer ranks as the second most frequent cancer among women in India. About 5 per cent of women in the general population are estimated to harbour cervical HPV‐16/18 infection at a given time, and 83.2 per cent of invasive cervical cancers are attributed to HPVs 16 or 18. HPV infection is now a well‐established cause of cervical cancer and HPV types 16 and 18 are types most frequent and responsible for about 70 per cent of all cervical cancer cases worldwide.
Till 1850 India was using vaccines imported from Britain until Dr Waldemar Haffkine developed cholera and plague vaccines through clinical trials in India in the late 19th century.
India’s National Immunisation Mission has come a long way since then. But it still needs a sustained supply of indigenously developed vaccines to run the world’s largest universal immunisation programme.
For example, vaccines for human-papillomavirus (HPV) that is known to cause cervical cancer and rotavirus that causes potentially lethal diarrhoea in children could be included in the NIM only after local players developed them at affordable rates.
This July, after over a decade’s hard work, the first indigenously developed HPV vaccine Ceravac received approval from the country’s drug regulator. The vaccine has a two-dose and a three-dose regimen depending on the age of the person.
Co-developed by the Department of Biotechnology and Pune-based vaccine maker Serum Institute of India (SII), the vaccine is expected to cost between Rs 200 and Rs 400 per dose as against the currently available vaccines Gardasil (Merck) and Cervarix (GlaxoSmithKline) that cost Rs 2,000-3,500 per dose.
Affordability is going to be the driver.
“Although there has always been a considerable demand for multinational vaccines, the cost of these has always been a concern. Now with an affordable HPV vaccine available for cervical cancer, a much larger population will have access to the vaccine, which might reduce the incidences of cervical cancer,” Dr Sonal Kumta, Senior Consultant-Obstetrician & Gynaecologist, Fortis Hospital, Mulund, Mumbai.
The government vaccine policy think tank, National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI), has wanted to include the HPV vaccine in the list of vaccines that are part of the NIM for a while. India was, however, waiting for an indigenously developed affordable vaccine to be able to do so.
The concerns stem from the fact that cervical cancer ranks as the second most frequent cancer among women in India. About 5 per cent of women in the general population are estimated to harbour cervical HPV‐16/18 infection at a given time, and 83.2 per cent of invasive cervical cancers are attributed to HPVs 16 or 18. HPV infection is now a well‐established cause of cervical cancer and HPV types 16 and 18 are types most frequent and responsible for about 70 per cent of all cervical cancer cases worldwide.