In support of the end-game initiative to eradicate polio globally, India’s Serum Institute and its Dutch subsidiary Bilthoven Biologicals BV jointly said they would substantially reduce the price on inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), compared to the prevailing market price.

Serum had bought the Dutch company in 2012 and this is for the first time that the two companies have joined hands to make IPV available to UNICEF at a subsidised rate, which in turn resulted in triggering a global reduction in price of IPV, the company said.

The price on the IPV dose at $4 was halved to $2, an official familiar with the development, said. No more details were available on the initiative.

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative [GPEI] Endgame Strategic Plan targets polio eradication by 2018.

Roeland van Dam, CEO of Bilthoven Biologicals, said the price reduction was thanks to Serum Institute subsidising the cost. This has been done to provide vaccines to the poorer countries, the note said.

Cyrus S Poonawalla, Chairman of Serum Institute, was confident that the price of IPV would come down further, given the research efforts being put in.

Recently Serum Institute of India stepped in to resolve the acute shortage of hundreds of million doses of OPV (oral polio vaccine) required by the UN agencies at short notice and at affordable prices, thus mitigating a polio vaccine availability crisis, the company said.

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