title: Core values for vaccine evaluation.
abstract: Currently, most health economic modelling approaches tend to inadequately incorporate crucial disease-specific criteria and other attributes of benefit resulting from vaccination, which limits their utility for evaluating vaccines and, in consequence, for optimally guiding vaccine decision-making. Additionally, vaccine evaluation methods are frequently poorly standardised and non-transparent, leading to a potentially low level of accountability that can hinder acceptance of resulting decisions. To address these issues, we have considered whether it is possible to identify a set of universal vaccine-disease considerations, which we have called Core Values. To begin to identify such a set of criteria, and to establish whether strong agreement around such core values exists, we conducted two studies based on the Delphi technique. Both studies surveyed a cohort consisting of expert members of the global vaccine community with diverse professional backgrounds. Formal statistical analysis of both studies identified four attributes with strong agreement: 1. Incidence disease cases prevented per year, 2. Cost-effectiveness (including cost-benefit and cost-utility analysis), 3. High mortality disease (case-fatality-rate), and 4. Severity of target disease (risk of morbidity and mortality). These results suggest the feasibility of identifying a clear consensus on a specific set of Core Values for Vaccine Evaluation.
authors.affiliation: University of Freiburg, Fahnenbergplatz, D-79085 Freiburg i. Br., Germany.
authors.forename: James Kenneth
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Timmis
authors.affiliation: GSK, Gunnels Wood Road, Stevenage, Herts SG1 2NY, UK.
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rigat
authors.affiliation: GSK Vaccines, Via Fiorentina, 1, 53100 SI, Italy. Electronic address: rino.r.rappuoli@gsk.com.
authors.forename: Rino
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rappuoli
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003657:Decision Making; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D006801:Humans; D017589:Immunization Programs / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D014611:Vaccination / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D014612:Vaccines
chemical_list: D014612:Vaccines
keywords: Core values; Decision-making; GH2035; Health Technology Assessment (HTA); Health policy; MCDA; Vaccine evaluation; Vaccine policy