Study on the health-economic burden associated with novel serotypes in next generation pneumococcal conjugate vaccines

A recent paper published in Vaccine estimates the health economic burden associated with acute respiratory infections (ARIs) and invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) caused by PCV24- and PCV31-additional (non-PCV20) serotypes in the United States. Since 2023, 15- and 20-valent PCVs (PCV15, PCV20) have been recommended for the routine vaccination of infants in a four-dose series (three primary doses and one booster dose). Next generation 24- and 31-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccines are at present in clinical trials, which expand on the serotypes included in PCV20. To estimate the health-economic burden of non-PCV20 serotypes in PCV24 and PCV31, the authors captured the medical costs including outpatient visit costs, antibiotic prescription costs, patient out-of-pocket costs, and surgical costs, as well as societal costs (non-medical costs) including quality-adjusted life years (QALY) losses and productivity losses. 

They estimated the health-economic burden of PCV24-additional serotypes to be $1.3 billion a year and PCV31-additional serotypes at $7.5 billion a year. The authors concluded that a sizeable health-economic burden is attributable to additional serotypes in PCV24 and PCV31, particularly the latter, in the United States. If shown to be safe and effective, the next generation vaccines have the potential to significantly reduce the economic costs related to AIRs and IPD.