In News: The Serum Institute of India (SII)’s vaccine Cervavac recently received the Drugs Controller General of India’s (DGCI) approval for market authorisation.
Cervavac is India’s first quadrivalent human papillomavirus vaccine (qHPV) vaccine, and intended to protect women against cervical cancer.
Cervical cancer
Cervical cancer is a common sexually transmitted infection.
Long-lasting infectionwith certain types of HPV is the main cause of cervical cancer.
Worldwide, cervical cancer is the second most common cancer type and the second most common cause of cancer death in women of reproductive age (15–44).
India accounts for about a fifth of the global burden, with 23 lakh cases and around 67,000 deaths per year according to the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer
It kills one woman every eight minutes in the country.
Screening and vaccination are two powerful tools that are available for preventive cervical cancer.
Still there is little awareness among women for prevention of this cancer and less than 10% of Indian women get screened.
Existing vaccines
Two vaccines licensed globally are available in India — a quadrivalent vaccine (Gardasil, from Merck) and a bivalent vaccine (Cervarix, from GlaxoSmithKline).
Although HPV vaccination was introduced in 2008, it has yet to be included in the national immunisationprogramme.
The new vaccine
The vaccine is based on VLP (virus like particles), similar to the hepatitis B vaccine, and provides protection by generating antibodies against the HPV virus’s L1 protein.
This will be a huge step to accelerate cervical cancer elimination in India and globally.
