Govt likely to float global tender for cervical cancer vaccine

New Delhi, January 29

The Health Ministry intends to roll out HPV vaccine against cervical cancer in the national immunisation programme for girls aged nine to 14 years in June for which a global tender is likely to be floated in April, official sources have said.

Present scenario

• India is dependent on foreign manufacturers for HPV vaccines
• Globally, three foreign firms manufacture HPV vaccines of which two sell their doses in India
• Each dose of the vaccine available in the market costs more than Rs 4,000

Serum Institute’s made-in-India HPV vaccine “CERVAVAC” was launched by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on January 24 in the presence of the Pune-based firm’s CEO Adar Poonawalla and Prakash Kumar Singh, Director, Government and Regulatory Affairs.

“The ministry is likely to float in April a global tender for 16.02 crore doses of HPV vaccine, which will be supplied by 2026. Apart from domestic manufacturer Serum Institute of India (SII), global vaccine manufacturer Merck is also likely to participate in the tender,” an official source said.

In July last year, India’s drug regulator granted market authorization to SII’s indigenously developed HPV vaccine. It has also been cleared by government advisory panel National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) for use in the public health programme.

Prakash Kumar Singh, on the sidelines of a South Asia meet on HPV last month, had said the price of CERVAVAC would be affordable compared to the international HPV vaccine available in India.

India, at present, is fully dependent on foreign manufacturers for HPV vaccines. Globally, three foreign firms manufacture HPV vaccines out of which two sell their doses in India.

Each dose of the vaccine available in the market costs more than Rs 4,000, sources said.In September 2022, Poonawalla had said that each dose of its “CERVAVAC” vaccine would cost Rs 200 to Rs 400.

India, which is home to about 16 per cent of the world’s women, accounts for about a quarter of all cervical cancer incidences and nearly a third of global cervical cancer deaths.

Indian women face a 1.6 per cent lifetime cumulative risk of developing cervical cancer and a one per cent cumulative death risk from cervical cancer, according to officials.

Recent estimates state that every year almost 80,000 women develop cervical cancer and 35,000 die in India due to it.