The Government of Castilla-La Mancha will acquire 150,000 doses of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine of 20 serotypes, intended for people over 65 or over 18 belonging to risk groups, with a planned investment of 6.8 million euros.
The Minister of Equality and spokesperson, Blanca Fernández, explained that, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), these inoculations prevent a “very important” health problem in the world order, since pneumococcal disease is one of the leading causes of vaccine-preventable death worldwide.
“We have been able to authorize spending within the 30 million euros that we invest in vaccines, because we understand that the best way to protect public health is prevention,” he pointed out.
It is a “new and powerful” vaccine, as Blanca Fernández has said, a conjugate of 20 serotypes (VNC20) and developed by the PFIZER, SLU laboratory, which was approved by the European Commission in February 2022, thus ratifying the favorable opinion of the European Medicines Agency.
As regards Spain, following the decision on financing and fixing amounts of the Interministerial Commission on Medicine Prices, on August 1, 2022, the marketing of this vaccine was authorized throughout the national territory; while, in February 2023, the Vaccination Advisory Group of the General Directorate of Public Health of the Ministry of Health of Castilla-La Mancha finally approved the new recommendations for immunization with VNC20.
