Immunization Delivery Catalogue

The Immunization Economics global collaborative has recently launched the Immunization Delivery Cost Catalogue: the most comprehensive, current, and standardized global evidence on the cost of delivering vaccines. The web catalogue explores the costs of delivering immunization in 31 countries, evaluating for single vaccines (such as HPV or PCV) and combination vaccines, delivered through various strategies via health facility or schools.

As more low- and middle-income countries transition to self-financed immunization programs and the pressure and need to introduce new vaccines grows, country governments need to understand what it will cost to deliver them long-term. However, cost data is fragmented across contexts, of variable quality, and difficult to access and use by policymakers, program planners, and other global and country-level stakeholders. This resource aims to help decision-makers access, understand, and utilize the evidence they need about vaccine delivery costs.

This major undertaking was led by colleagues from ThinkWell through the Immunization Costing Action Network (ICAN) project, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The ICAN team reviewed close to 500 published resources and grey literature and extracted 54 sources of data. Through this project, ThinkWell is working to build country capacity on the generation and use of cost evidence for sustainable and predictable financing for immunization.

The web catalogue is hosted under the Immunization Economics global collaborative based at the Harvard Chan School. The website – immunizationeconomics.org – includes tools, questionnaires, publication lists, and data repository that can be used by countries or funding organizations to assess the true cost of immunization programs with a high degree of accuracy.

The collaborative is led by Stephen Resch, PhD, MPH, Principal Investigator of the EPIC project and Deputy Director of CHDS, together with Christian Suharlim, MD, MPH, Research Associate at CHDS and Director of Public Affairs of this collaborative.

Learn more: Visit the repository to read about the costing catalogue.
Learn more: Explore cost-effectiveness analysis initiatives at CHDS and beyond.
Learn more: Read Harvard Chan School news coverage about the catalog.