India’s first gender-neutral Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has been rolled out by MSD Pharmaceuticals. These vaccines would reduce HPV-related disease burden and cancers caused by the virus in Indian women, girls as well as boys. The vaccine would offer protection against nine HPV serotypes (6, 11, 16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52 and 58) and can be administered to girls and women between 9-26 years in age and boys in the age bracket of 9-15 years. The three-dose nano-valent vaccine requires to be administered via intramuscular injections over a period of 6 months.
In its latest statement, MSD Pharmaceutical has mentioned that the vaccine would help in bringing down the disease burden of vulva, cervical, vaginal and anal cancers in females and it would also help in prevention of genital warts, anal intraepithelial neoplasia, anal cancer and precancerous or dysplastic lesions in males.
