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Serum Institute of India (SII) has announced the launch of India’s first indigenously developed pneumococcal vaccine, ‘Pneumosil’ in the presence of Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan.
Pneumosil has been developed through collaboration over a decade with partners like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Health minister stated, “Pneumosil is an example of India's capability in research & development and manufacturing high end sophisticated vaccines.
It is 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.”
Detailing the achievements of Serum Institute in tailoring a vaccine for India’s needs, Dr. Vardhan said, “Serum Institute’s first indigenous pneumococcal conjugate vaccine will be available in the market under brand name “Pneumosil” at an affordable price in single dose (vial and pre-filled syringe) and multidose (vial) presentations. Pneumosil has been extensively evaluated in 5 randomized 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.”
“During clinical trials, Pneumosil was found to be safe and effective in the prevention of pneumonia disease and based on which Pneumosil has been licensed by Drugs Controller General (India) in July 2020 after approval from Subject Expert Committee (SEC),” he added.
Dr Vardhan remarked that Serum Institute’s vaccines are used in 170 countries and every third child in the world is immunized with the manufacturer’s vaccine. He reminded the audience that SII developed and got license of first indigenous pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) from Government of India during COVID-19 pandemic.
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