CDSCO

The world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines had planned to inaugurate the park with the production of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, India’s first indigenously made one, months ago. HPV infections are among the most common sexually transmitted diseases and such vaccines can prevent many related cancers such as cervical cancer. But then, covid-19 changed its course. Part of the facility was used to make covid vaccines. The pandemic has ebbed and now,…

Pharma firm Bharat Biotech on Monday announced that its intranasal covid-19 vaccine iNCOVACC (BBV154) has received approval from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) for…

The circular was odd for several reasons. The KFD vaccine is widely seen as the top-line defence against the disease. After all, there is no specific treatment for KFD, and it is hard for forest workers, who are most at risk, to avoid tick bites. Also, the vaccine had been used in the state for some 33 years. So, why did the health department suddenly decide to stop using the vaccine? What the circular didn’t reveal was that this decision, in fact, hadn’t been sudden. On the contrary,…

To understand it fully, however, one needs to understand how India’s joint licensing system for human vaccines works. The green signalBoth the CDSCO and the state regulator play roles in India’s joint licensing system, although the CDSCO’s part is more critical. This is because many state regulators do not have the expertise or infrastructure to evaluate the quality of vaccines. For instance, KDCD’s labs lack the ability to independently test the quality of the KFD vaccine. This is why…