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GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals has discontinued Cervarix, its vaccine against cervical cancer, about 12 years since it was launched in the country.
The Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine, Cervarix from the British biopharma major GSK Plc, and Gardasil from Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) have been in India from 2009 and 2008, respectively.
With the latest move by GSK, India will be left with only two vaccines against cervical cancer, with the indigenously made HPV vaccine from Serum Institute of India posed for launch later this year.
Confirming the Cervarix development, a GSK India spokesperson told BusinessLine that the company had discontinued the vaccine in India and other regions across the globe as part of its portfolio rationalisation over the last year.
“Cervarix was a small contributor to GSK’s vaccine business in India with a sales of approximately 1,00,000 doses a year, as reflected in IQVIA (a health information technology and clinical research company),” he added. Industry-watchers also point to global shortages and non-availability of stocks.
Cervarix and Gardasil had come in for scrutiny in 2010, following the death of tribal girls who had participated in feasibility studies evaluating the use of cervical cancer vaccines for mass vaccination.
The study was done in Gujarat and the then undivided Andhra Pradesh by the non-government organisation PATH. The companies, though, stood by the safety and efficacy of their vaccines.
Price dynamics
Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women in India, and a leading killer among women globally.
Doctors in India are watching the development of an indigenous vaccine with interest as it promises to be less expensive.
GSK’s Cervarix was available at over ₹2,300. Similarly, the price of Gardasil is pegged at ₹3,927. A spokesperson for MSD said that their price to State governments was $4.5 (about ₹350) per dose. Serum Institute Chief Executive Adar Poonawalla recently indicated that their HPV vaccine would be sold between ₹200 and 400.
MSD’s Gardasil 4 is a quadrivalent vaccine, and so is Serum Institute’s vaccine. But with HPV affecting both genders, MSD has also brought in its Gardasil 9 vaccine, a gender-neutral HPV vaccine to addresses certain HPV related diseases, among girls, women and boys.
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