The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has welcomed the initiative of city-based pharmaceutical giant, Serum Institute of India (SII), to lower the price of its pentavalent vaccine for the developing world and for the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).
SII has fixed the price of the vaccine at Rs100, to make it affordable for developing countries. As the name suggests, this 5-in-1 vaccine is given to children to protect them from life-threatening haemophilus influenza type B, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus and hepatitis B.
Four shots of this vaccine are recommended for children less than a year old. General Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisations (Gavi), an international alliance, works for making life-saving vaccines available at cheap rates in the developing countries. The SII’s act of lowering the price is part of Gavi’s move.
In India, other than the SII, Panacea Biotech has reduced the price of its pentavalent vaccine funded by Gavi.
Adar Poonawalla, executive director of SII, said the initiative has been welcomed by Unicef for its ongoing immunisation drive in Africa, Asia and Latin America. “We hope that this would make the drugs easily available for the poorest of the poor,” he said.
Dr TU Sukumaran, president of Indian Academy of Paediatricians, termed it a very good move for increasing the immunisation cover of the country. “Pentavalent vaccine is a very important vaccine. However, the cost of the vaccine was a deterrent. The lowering of the price will surely help us in saving many lives,” he said.
