Overall effectiveness of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines: An economic analysis of PHiD-CV and PCV-13 in the immunization of infants in Italy

Pneumococcal diseases are associated with a significant clinical and economic burden. The 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV-7) has been used for the immunization of newborns against invasive pneumococcal diseases (IPD) in Italy while now, the pneumococcal non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae protein D conjugate vaccine (PHiD-CV) and the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV-13) are available.The aim of this analysis was to compare the estimated health benefits, cost and cost-effectiveness of immunization strategies vs. non-vaccination in Italy using the concept of overall vaccine effectiveness.A published Markov model was adapted using local data wherever available to compare the impact of neonatal pneumococcal vaccination on epidemiological and economic burden of invasive and non-invasive pneumococcal diseases, within a cohort of newborns from the Italian National Health Service (NHS) perspective. A 18-year and a 5-year time horizon were considered for the base-case and scenario analysis, respectively.PHiD-CV and PCV-13 are associated with the most important reduction of the clinical burden, with a potential marginal advantage of PHiD-CV over PCV-13. Compared with no vaccination, PHiD-CV is found on the higher limit of the usually indicated willingness to pay range (30,000 - 50,000Euro/quality-adjusted life year [QALY] gained), while the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) for PCV-13 is slightly above. Compared with PCV-13, PHiD-CV would provide better health outcomes and reduce costs even at parity price, solely due to its differential effect on the incidence of NTHi acute otitis media (AOM). The analysis on a shorter time horizon confirms the direction of the base-case.