Despite growing pipelines of innovative vaccine products, many countries face persistent delays in adopting them into national immunization programs. These evidence-to-policy gaps are often not due to lack of efficacy or safety data, but rather to insufficient understanding of how to implement new products effectively in real-world settings. As global health systems increasingly aim to strengthen evidence-informed decision-making, there is a growing recognition that implementation factors must be considered alongside clinical outcomes.
This article emphasizes the importance of integrating implementation research into clinical trials of vaccines and immunization-related technologies, thereby facilitating the generation of policy-relevant evidence on implementation and bridging the gap between vaccine innovation and real-world impact. Knowledge on the “how to” (i.e., implementation aspects) alongside traditional evidence, such as efficacy and safety of innovative vaccine products, can inform impactful decision-making, fast-tracking progress towards prioritization and introduction, which is crucial for achieving disease control goals. However, this requires close collaboration between researchers and national decision-makers from the early stages of vaccine product development. An integer-based self-rating tool is proposed to help researchers assess their level of engagement with decision-makers.
Thumbnail image credit: Gavi
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