Your biweekly update on health economics, policy, and impact
This Bulletin explores the return on investment from vaccination, how biosimilars can expand access to treatment, and Zimbabwe's window to embed HTA in its health system.
That’s your Bulletin summary, or read on for the full stories below.
Simon Brassel,
Associate Director
The societal value of vaccination
Flu season is fast approaching. Last year, the NHS faced one of its worst-ever winter flu crises, driven partly by low vaccination uptake - at the time, uptake was around 71.7% in adults aged 65+, 35.6% in pregnant women and 37.4% in those under 65 with long-term health conditions.
This undermines the substantial societal value that effective vaccination can deliver. As we show in a recent paper in Health Affairs Scholar, current CDC-recommended adult vaccination programs for 4 respiratory diseases in the US prevent over 182,000 deaths and yield a 12-to-1 benefit-cost ratio from a societal perspective. If vaccine eligibility guidelines were expanded, and coverage increases to 75%, an additional 100,000 deaths could be averted. This is a stark reminder of the value of vaccination for all healthcare systems, and a particularly critical warning in the current US policy climate.
Increasing vaccine uptake partly depends on recognising vaccines' value correctly, including their value beyond the healthcare system. This is an increasing challenge for all HTA bodies, but it offers an instructive opportunity for regions newly building up their HTA capacities, such as Zimbabwe, which is the latest focus of our ‘Around the World in HTA series’.
We know vaccines work; the question is how to capture their broader value and act accordingly.
Vaccines: $6 to $12 back for every $1
Socioeconomic value of adult respiratory vaccination in the United States: a benefit-cost analysis
Adult respiratory vaccination in the US returns $6 to $12 in societal value for every $1 spent. Our new paper in Health Affairs Scholar evaluates four CDC-recommended adult programmes. It finds that current recommendations prevent over 182,000 deaths and 2.5 million hospitalisations over 15 years.
Unlocking the broader value of biologic therapies through biosimilar-enabled access and repositioning
Biologics account for over 40% of global pharmaceutical spending, yet biosimilar competition is mostly discussed in terms of cost savings. Biosimilar-Enabled Access and Repositioning (BEAR) looks at how lower prices can bring treatments to new patients, indications and earlier lines of therapy. In England, reassessing bevacizumab gave around 7,000 more patients access to treatment.
Around the World in HTAs: Zimbabwe – Seizing a window of opportunity
With National Health Insurance (NHI) reform underway, Zimbabwe has a window to make HTA part of how it prioritises healthcare spending. The next Essential Medicines List revision offers a practical starting point. Establishing a steering committee and technical secretariat, and strengthening local data, would help lay the foundations.
Join us at the World Health Summit 2026 on 12 October at 9:00 CET in Berlin, Germany, for a session on how changes in US pharmaceutical pricing policy could reshape global medicine access and equity. Experts will discuss how pricing, procurement, and regulation can support sustainable innovation while ensuring access is driven by health need, not national bargaining power.
