HPV vaccine available free of charge in Brazil as of March

Criado em 13/01/14 16h12 e atualizado em 13/01/14 16h30
Por Elaine Patricia Cruz Fonte:Agência Brasil

São Paulo – The Butantan Institute delivered first batch of vaccines for human papillomavirus (HPV) to the Ministry of Health on Friday (Jan. 10). That's four million doses which will be administered by the public healthcare system (SUS) at no cost to the population as of March, says Health Minister Alexandre Padilha.

In 2014, a total of 15 million doses will be provided at a total cost of $195.22 million. The ministry's target is to vaccinate some 5 million girls aged between 11 and 13 years old this year.

“It's a recommendation from the World Health Organization (WHO) [to vaccinate adolescents aged 11 and above]. The vaccine has proved quite effective in protecting these populations (…). Because the virus is sexually transmitted, by mitigating it among women, you both protect them and reduce female-to-male contagion,” Padilha said.

Over the next five years, the ministry is planning to spend a budget of about $462 million to purchase 36 million doses of the vaccine – from that point, Butantan will start its own in-house production, based on technology transferred by Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD).

The vaccine which will be provided by public healthcare is quadrivalent. According to MSD, it prevents HPV types 6, 11, 16, and 18, which cause 70% of cervical cancer cases in Brazil.

According to the ministry, this is one of the most common types of tumor in women, second only to breast cancer. In 2011, 5,160 women died from the disease in Brazil.

“While buying ready-made vaccines at this moment, we have already begun training on how to make them, perform quality control checks, and other steps. We are going all the way back from the final through the early stages to handle from bottling to formulation to virus reconstruction to fermentations. Within five years, we believe we'll have mastered the whole process,” Butantan director Jorge Kalil explained.

The partnership and technology transfer agreement between the two laboratories have saved $32.75 million in vaccine procurement costs this year. Each dose will cost the Ministry of Health $12.59. “Currently, a household paying for the vaccine would spend R$ 1,000 [$419.83] for three doses,” Padilha explained.

Next year, the vaccine is also planned to be administered to girls aged 9 and 10.

Edited by Aécio Amado / Nira Foster
Translated by Mayra Borges