Friday, March 28, 2014

The new liquid Whole Cell Pertussis Pentavalent vaccine by Novartis (QUINVAXEM) now in India - is it really less painful & worth paying more money?

Here is a discussion going on about the new liquid Whole Cell Pertussis Pentavalent vaccine by Novartis (QUINVAXEM). It costs almost twice as much as the regular whole cell pertussis vaccines, and the company claims that it is having minimal side-effects similar to the acellular pertussis vaccine. 
Here is what a learned doctor had to say
Dear Dr.,
Such claims are not evidence based. When the MR of Novartis claimed such before me i asked for scientific evidence and prove it. He didn't turned up then. More over i also searched the literature including pubmed but could not find and such study. So this is baseless claim , doctors should not get carried out by such claim without evidence. I presume that such false claim may be such to justify their exorbitant cost difference- if i am not wrong 120 times more then DTwP from indigenous manufacturer.
with regards

Dr. Digant D. Shastri
M.D. (Ped.), FIAP, PGDHHM
Surat,Gujarat
Immediate Past Chairperson IAP Infectious Diseases chapter?

Vice President, IMA Surat 2013-2014
Executive Board Member, Central IAP 2007 ,2008, 2010,2013
Past President IAP Gujarat Branch ( 2007 )

Comment: I would have to agree with the expert opinion here. This vaccine is available in many countries for years now. Nowhere else has this vaccine being promoted as an alternative to DTaP. Also, if it was having such low reactogenicity, why would the western countries having epidemics of Pertussis, possibly related to use of DTaP, not shift to this vaccine?  

2 comments:

Unknown said...

this vaccine is safe ,please give your comment abt that

Dr. Gaurav Gupta M.D. said...

Yes, Safety is not really an issue, it has been used in many other countries and cleared by most authorities,
Regards