Dear Express Explained reader,
The national drug regulator has cleared Serum Institute of India’s Cervavac, the country’s first quadrivalent human papillomavirus vaccine (qHPV) vaccine. It’s an important development — providing what could be a real opportunity to eliminate cervical cancer (which is preventable but is still estimated to kill a woman every 8 minutes) in the country, should it be made part of national HPV vaccination strategies, and made available for cheaper than the vaccines that are currently available. Anuradha Mascarenhas wrote about HPV and cervical cancer, existing vaccines, and opportunities that Cervavac presents. Separately, Anonna Dutt spoke with Dr Kishore Singh, head of the Delhi State Cancer Institute, which runs India’s only public HPV vaccination programme for schoolchildren, for an exclusive expert’s view of the development. Do read.
Having lost the majority of its representatives in the…
