New Delhi: The first indigenous vaccine against pneumonia, developed by Serum Institute of India (SII), is slated to be launched by Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan. The pneumonia vaccine will be made available in the domestic market early next week, sources said Wednesday. According to the sources, the pneumonia vaccine will be much more affordable than existing ones manufactured by two foreign companies.
India’s drug regulator in July had granted market approval for the ‘Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Conjugate vaccine’. It did so after reviewing the phase 1, 2 and 3 clinical trial data submitted by the Pune-based firm.
This vaccine is used for active immunisation against invasive disease and pneumonia caused by ‘Streptococcus pneumonia’ in infants, the Health Ministry had said earlier.
Serum Institute has conducted the clinical trials of the vaccine in India and African nation Gambia.
“This is the first indigenously developed vaccine in the field of pneumonia,” an official source said. “The vaccine will be much more affordable than existing ones produced by Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK),” the source added.
As per UNICEF data, more than one lakh children under the age of five years die every year in India due to the pneumococcal disease. Since pneumonia is a respiratory ailment, hence vaccination of children with the pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV) assumes utmost significance during the current COVID-19 pandemic, an official source said. India is currently dependent on imported PCV of foreign manufacturers at a very high price, the source said.
The vaccine which is administered in an intramuscular manner was pre-qualified by WHO in January.
Earlier, the demand of such vaccine was substantially met by licensed importers in India since the manufacturers were companies based outside India.