A new publication in Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics estimates the cost of delivering COVID-19 vaccines in Bangladesh from a payer and beneficiary perspective. To inform the efficient and equitable resource management of the COVID-19 program, as well as future vaccine rollouts, the authors costed the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines in Bangladesh through five delivery strategies in 2021 and 2022. The delivery strategies included Ministry of Health (MOH) hospitals, non-MOH government hospitals, outreach at Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) centers, mass campaigns, and schools. The authors also estimated the costs incurred by individuals to obtain one vaccine dose at fixed sites.
The economic cost incurred by the health system to deliver COVID-19 vaccines was US$1.05 per dose (excluding vaccine costs). This comprised of a financial cost of $0.29 per dose and an opportunity cost of $0.75 per dose. At $0.27 per dose, delivery was least costly at schools, while most costly at EPI centers ($0.44 per dose). The low financial cost per dose was explained by the high volumes of vaccines delivered daily at sampled sites, little additional resources provided at implementation level, and a reliance on the existing health workforce. Beneficiaries spent an average of $1.63 to receive a single dose of COVID-19 vaccination at fixed sites. Costs were mostly attributed to transport to and from the vaccination site ($0.75 per dose). The economic cost to receive one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine was $4.78.
The full study report is available here. This study is part of a multi-country project that utilizes standardized methods to generate cost evidence on the delivery of C19 vaccines in low- and middle-income countries. The project is led by ThinkWell and supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and covers studies in Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, Uganda, Bangladesh, and the Philippines.
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