Pneumosil: India’s first indigenously created vaccine

Subject : Science & tech

Context: Recently, Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) unveiled India’s first indigenously developed pneumococcal vaccine – Pneumosil.

Concept :

SII’s pneumococcal vaccine is developed through a collaboration spanning over a decade with the health organisation PATH and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Based on the trials, Pneumosil was licensed by the Drugs Controller General (India) in July 2020.
The vaccine also makes SII the world’s third supplier of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) and the first developing country vaccine manufacturer to access the global PCV market.
It 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.

Significance:

Will reduce under-five mortality: Pneumococcal disease is a significant contributor under-five mortality rate worldwide.
Significant milestone for the country’s and the world’s public healthcare: As the Serum Institute’s vaccines are used in 170 countries and every third child in the world is immunised with one of its vaccines.
Affordable: While PCVs have helped reduce pneumococcal deaths, they are difficult for many countries to afford. Pneumosil addresses the need for a more affordable option.

Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine(PCV):

It prevents pneumococcal disease.
The vaccine is a mix of several bacteria of the pneumococci family, which are known to cause pneumonia. Hence ‘conjugate’ is included in the name of the vaccine.
Conjugate vaccines are made using a combination of two different components.

Pneumococcal disease:

It refers to any illness caused by pneumococcal bacteria. Pneumococcal bacteria are one of the most common causes of pneumonia.
Symptoms: Can cause many types of illnesses, including pneumonia, which is an infection of the lungs.
Anyone can get pneumococcal disease, but children under 2 years of age, people with certain medical conditions, adults 65 years or older, and smokers are at the highest risk.

Status in India :

Incidence: 4.8 episodes per 1,000 children younger than 5 years (in 2010).
The top five contributors: In terms of the number of cases and deaths were Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jharkhand.
Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) was launched by the government in 1985, to prevent mortality and morbidity in children and pregnant women against 12 vaccine-preventable diseases – Tuberculosis, Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Polio, Hepatitis B, Pneumonia and Meningitis due to Haemophilus Influenzae type b (Hib), Measles, Rubella, Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Rotavirus diarrhoea.