New Vaccine Platforms—Novel Dimensions of Economic and Societal Value and Their Measurement

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic’s dramatic impact has been a vivid reminder that vaccines—especially in the context of infectious respiratory viruses—provide enormous societal value, well beyond the healthcare system perspective which anchors most Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG) evaluation frameworks. Furthermore, the development of modified ribonucleic acid-based (mRNA-based) and nanoparticle vaccine technologies has brought into focus several new value drivers previously absent from the discourse on vaccines as public health interventions such as increased vaccine adaptation capabilities, the improved ability to develop combination vaccines, and more efficient vaccine manufacturing and production processes. We review these novel value dimensions and discuss how they might be measured and incorporated within existing value frameworks using existing methods. To realize the full potential of next-generation vaccine platforms and ensure their widespread availability across populations and health systems, it is important that value frameworks utilized by HTAs and NITAGs properly reflect the full range of benefits for population health and well-being and cost efficiencies that these new vaccines platforms provide.