Methods for Health Economic Evaluation of Vaccines and Immunization Decision Frameworks: A Consensus Framework from a European Vaccine Economics Community

Bernhard Ultsch (), Oliver Damm, Philippe Beutels, Joke Bilcke, Bernd Brüggenjürgen, Andreas Gerber-Grote, Wolfgang Greiner, Germaine Hanquet, Raymond Hutubessy, Mark Jit, Mirjam Knol, Rüdiger Kries, Alexander Kuhlmann, Daniel Levy-Bruhl, Matthias Perleth, Maarten Postma, Heini Salo, Uwe Siebert, Juergen Wasem and Ole Wichmann
Additional contact information
Bernhard Ultsch: Robert Koch Institute (RKI)
Oliver Damm: Bielefeld University
Philippe Beutels: University of Antwerp
Joke Bilcke: University of Antwerp
Bernd Brüggenjürgen: Steinbeis University Berlin (SHB)
Andreas Gerber-Grote: Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG)
Wolfgang Greiner: Bielefeld University
Germaine Hanquet: Belgian Health Care Knowledge Centre (KCE)
Raymond Hutubessy: World Health Organization (WHO)
Mark Jit: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)
Mirjam Knol: Centre for Infectious Disease Control (RIVM)
Rüdiger Kries: Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU)
Alexander Kuhlmann: University of Hannover
Daniel Levy-Bruhl: Institut de Veille Sanitaire (InVS)
Matthias Perleth: Federal Joint Committee (G-BA)
Maarten Postma: University of Groningen
Heini Salo: National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL)
Uwe Siebert: University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology (UMIT)
Ole Wichmann: Robert Koch Institute (RKI)

PharmacoEconomics, 2016, vol. 34, issue 3, No 4, 227-244

Abstract: Abstract Background Incremental cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analyses [health economic evaluations (HEEs)] of vaccines are routinely considered in decision making on immunization in various industrialized countries. While guidelines advocating more standardization of such HEEs (mainly for curative drugs) exist, several immunization-specific aspects (e.g. indirect effects or discounting approach) are still a subject of debate within the scientific community. Objective The objective of this study was to develop a consensus framework for HEEs of vaccines to support the development of national guidelines in Europe. Methods A systematic literature review was conducted to identify prevailing issues related to HEEs of vaccines. Furthermore, European experts in the field of health economics and immunization decision making were nominated and asked to select relevant aspects for discussion. Based on this, a workshop was held with these experts. Aspects on ‘mathematical modelling’, ‘health economics’ and ‘decision making’ were debated in group-work sessions (GWS) to formulate recommendations and/or—if applicable—to state ‘pros’ and ‘contras’. Results A total of 13 different aspects were identified for modelling and HEE: model selection, time horizon of models, natural disease history, measures of vaccine-induced protection, duration of vaccine-induced protection, indirect effects apart from herd protection, target population, model calibration and validation, handling uncertainty, discounting, health-related quality of life, cost components, and perspectives. For decision making, there were four aspects regarding the purpose and the integration of HEEs of vaccines in decision making as well as the variation of parameters within uncertainty analyses and the reporting of results from HEEs. For each aspect, background information and an expert consensus were formulated. Conclusions There was consensus that when HEEs are used to prioritize healthcare funding, this should be done in a consistent way across all interventions, including vaccines. However, proper evaluation of vaccines implies using tools that are not commonly used for therapeutic drugs. Due to the complexity of and uncertainties around vaccination, transparency in the documentation of HEEs and during subsequent decision making is essential.

Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s40273-015-0335-2 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
Journal Article: Methods for Health Economic Evaluation of Vaccines and Immunization Decision Frameworks: A Consensus Framework from a European Vaccine Economics Community (2016)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:pharme:v:34:y:2016:i:3:d:10.1007_s40273-015-0335-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/40273

DOI: 10.1007/s40273-015-0335-2

Access Statistics for this article

PharmacoEconomics is currently edited by Timothy Wrightson and Christopher I. Carswell

More articles in PharmacoEconomics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().