An economic evaluation of thermostable vaccines in Cambodia, Ghana and Bangladesh

This paper evaluates the incremental health and programmatic cost impacts of new vaccine products, as compared to the standard vaccine products in multi-dose vials in Cambodia, Ghana, and Bangladesh. The authors use a cost-effectiveness model to estimate the impacts of introducing four thermostable vaccines with single-dose presentations: measles, yellow fever, bacille Calmette-Guérin, and diphtheria–tetanus–pertussis–hepatitis B. The effectiveness of all of the vaccines increases with the thermostable formats. The incremental costs associated with the introduction of thermostable vaccines increases for three out of four vaccines. Single-dose presentations of thermostable vaccines are potentially cost-effective interventions to reduce childhood deaths and disability in low-resource settings in Asia and Africa.