Dr. Flavio Toxvaerd explains in the Economics Observatory, vaccines should be valued higher than treatments, because with communicable diseases they reduce the likelihood of people becoming seriously ill.

How does the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) value drugs? Normally it is a simple cost-effectiveness analysis, which ensures some comparability between how vaccines and other medicines are appraised.

However, as Dr Toxvaerd explains in an opinion piece for the Economics Observatory, vaccines should be valued higher than treatments, because with communicable diseases they reduce the likelihood – and hence the cost – of people becoming seriously ill in the first place.

He argues the Covid-19 crisis has made clear, not properly controlling an infectious disease has enormous economic and social costs, therefore we need simple rules of thumb to be developed to capture the additional value that vaccines have when they prevent diseases that are communicable.
 

Published on: Tuesday 17th August 2021

COVID-19

Epidemiology

Film Dynamics

Vaccines