Pneumococcal disease is a prime contributor for mortality rate amongst children worldwide, aged below five years.
Pune-based pharmaceutical company Serum Institute of India (SII) launched India's first indigenously developed pneumococcal conjugate vaccine 'Pneumosil' on Monday. The vaccine was launched by Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan.
The Health Ministry said in a statement that Serum Institute of India Private Limited (SIIPL) is currently the world's largest manufacturer of vaccines by number of doses and the vaccine developed by SII are used in 170 countries.
The pneumococcal vaccine is being developed by Pune-based pharmaceutical company Serum Institute of India in collaboration with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Pneumosil was granted license by the Drugs Controller General of India in July 2020 after approval from subject expert committee (SEC).
"Pneumosil has been extensively evaluated in five randomised and controlled clinical trials, and has demonstrated comparable safety and immunogenicity against licensed pneumococcal vaccines across diverse populations of India and Africa, where Pneumosil was administered to adults, toddlers and infants using different vaccination schedules," Harsh Vardhan was quoted as saying in the statement.
Pneumosil was found to be safe during clinical trials. The vaccine targets the pneumococcal bacterium, which causes pneumonia and other serious life-threatening diseases such as meningitis and sepsis, and is estimated to cause nearly four lakh deaths in children under five years of age each year worldwide.
Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment of Atmanirbhar Bharat, the Health Minister said that Pneumosil is an example of India's capability in research and development and developing important vaccines.
"In fact, it is a matter of pride for our country for this historical milestone during COVID-19 pandemic because till now we are fully dependent on Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine manufactured by foreign manufacturers which are available at very high prices," he added.
Pneumococcal disease is a prime contributor for mortality rate amongst children worldwide, aged below five years. Seeing the high mortality rate, the World Health Organization, in 2018 recommended the inclusion of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) in routine childhood immunisation programmes in all countries.
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