ABSTRACT
Economic analysis has been used to assess a wide range of issues related to vaccines and vaccination programs. Vaccine development priorities for the United States have been assessed by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), categorizing prospective vaccines based on their development and implementation costs compared with the projected health benefits achieved by their use [1]. Manufacturers may use economic analyses to determine allocation of resources among candidate vaccines and to establish vaccine price. After a vaccine is licensed in the United States, cost effectiveness is one of the factors considered by the U.S. Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in making recommendations for its use [2]. Once a vaccine is recommended, economic analysis may, in part, provide the basis for modifications, recommending new settings or populations in which the vaccine should be used. Economic evaluation of programmatic issues, such as approaches to increasing vaccination coverage, have also been assessed. Although balancing the economic value of immunization against other health programs has not been a key issue in some industrialized countries, for the developing world, the cost of vaccines and the economic analyses of immunization compared with other programs have been important [3].
