Cervical cancer vaccine launch in few months, to be priced between Rs 200-400: Adar Poonawalla
New Delhi, Sep 1: India's first indigenously developed quadrivalent Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine for the prevention of cervical cancer will be launched in a few months and made available to the people in an affordable price range of Rs 200-400, Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla said on Thursday.
Speaking at an event held to announce the scientific completion of the vaccine, Union Minister of Science and Technology Jitendra Singh said the vaccine will be affordable and the government will ensure that it is accessible to the common man.
Scientific completion implies that R&D activities pertaining to the vaccine are complete and now the next step of making them available to the public would take place
Singh said Covid has raised awareness about preventive healthcare leading to the development of vaccines like the one against cervical cancer.
"The schemes like Ayushman Bharat have made us think about preventive healthcare and we can now afford it. The Department of Biotechnology has taken a lead in the matter and are in collaborative mode," he said.
"Scientific efforts at times do not get the scale of recognition they deserve. So this event is to celebrate that scientific completion," he said.
Poonawalla told reporters on the sidelines of the event, "The cervical cancer vaccine will be affordable and would be available in the range of Rs 200-400. However, the final price will be decided after detailed discussions with the government".
"The vaccine would be much much less in price as compared to other vaccines for cervical cancer," he said.
Poonawalla said the vaccine will be possibly launched by the end of the year.
First the vaccine would be made available through the government channel and from next year onwards some private partners would be involved too, he said.
Poonawalla also said that a plan to make 200 million doses is in place and first the vaccine would be given in India and only after needs of the country are fulfilled it will be exported to other countries.
Rajesh Gokhale, Department of Biotechnology Secretary, said over 2000 volunteers participated across the country for this vaccine.
"Partnerships between private-public are becoming very important in such research, this co-creation is what is going to make all the difference in the world," he said.
Dr N Kalaiselvi, Director General, CSIR said this is the first stepping stone and research in the field and it will further continue.
"This government has taken the most amount of care to come up with this type of innovation, making us 'atmanirbhar'," she said.
According to the officials, the qHPV vaccine CERVAVAC has demonstrated robust antibody response that is nearly 1,000 times higher than the baseline against all targeted HPV types and in all dose and age groups.
Cervical cancer in India ranks as the second most frequent cancer among women between 15 and 44 years of age.
The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) had in July granted market authorisation to the Serum Institute to manufacture the vaccine against cervical cancer.
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Trump says EU has until July 4 to approve last year's trade deal or it will face higher tariffs
Washington (AP): President Donald Trump has said in a social media post that goods from the European Union would face higher tariff rates if the 27-member bloc fails to approve last year's trade framework by July 4.
The announcement on Thursday appeared to be a deadline extension after the president said last Friday that EU autos would face a higher 25 per cent tariff starting this week. Trump made the updated announcement after what he described as a "great call" with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Still, the US president was displeased that the European Parliament had yet to finalize the trade arrangement reached last year, which was further complicated in February by the US Supreme Court ruling that Trump lacked the legal authority to declare an economic emergency to impose the initial tariffs used to pressure the EU into talks.
"A promise was made that the EU would deliver their side of the Deal and, as per Agreement, cut their Tariffs to ZERO!" Trump posted. "I agreed to give her until our Country's 250th Birthday or, unfortunately, their Tariffs would immediately jump to much higher levels."
It was unclear from the post whether Trump was implying that the tariff rates would jump on all EU goods or the increase would only apply to autos.
His latest statement indicates he might be backing away from his earlier threat on EU autos by giving the European Parliament several more weeks to approve the agreement.
Under the original terms of the framework, the US would charge a 15 per cent tax on most goods imported from the EU.
But since the Supreme Court ruling, the administration has levied a 10 per cent tariff while investigating trade imbalances and national security issues, aiming to put in new tariffs to make up for lost revenues.
