Dr. Jitendra Singh, Hon'ble Minister of State of the Ministry of Science and Technology announced India’s first indigenously developed Quadrivalent Human Papillomavirus vaccine 'CERVAVAC'. This vaccine is an outcome of a partnership between Serum Institute of India (SII), Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) along with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Announcing the scientific completion of the quadrivalent Human Papilloma Virus (qHPV) vaccine ‘CERVAVAC’ in presence of Mr. Adar Poonawalla, CEO, Serum Institute of India and other prominent scientists and dignitaries, Dr. Singh said, "this affordable and cost-effective vaccine marks an important day for DBT and BIRAC as it takes India a step closer to PM Modi’s vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat".

Serum Institute of India (SII) had deferred HPV vaccine production by two years due to the focus on COVID, and it expects to start supplying small quantities of the dose to the Indian government in early 2023. According to Adar Poonawalla exports will have to wait till 2024 as the company has to build a scale of manufacturing to over 150 million for that.

Giving an update on Covishield vaccine, Adar Poonawalla, said that SII stopped the production of the Covishield vaccine since December last year. "Since December 2021, we have stopped the production of the Covishield vaccine. We had a stock of a few hundred million doses at that time and of that 100 million doses had already expired," Poonawalla told the reporters on the sidelines of the annual general meeting of the developing countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network in Pune.

He further said that some vaccines are allowed to be mixed with others for booster doses, "Now Covovax should be allowed be mixed soon in two weeks, So I think they will and should probably have the policy to mix boosters," he stated.

Dr. Jitendra Singh, Hon'ble Minister of State of the Ministry of Science and Technology announced India’s first indigenously developed Quadrivalent Human Papillomavirus vaccine 'CERVAVAC'.