PIN24 Budget Analysis of Turkish National Immunization Program

Abstract

Vaccines are often hailed as one of the most effective public health methods in preventing infectious diseases. Whilst the availability and introduction of new vaccines to address unmet needs has the potential to further increase the public health impact of immunization programmes, this also poses challenges to policy makers, who are confronted with the need to make decisions in the face of limited resources and budget constraints. The purpose of this analysis was to evaluate the cost of vaccination in Turkey for the current National Immunization Program (NIP). Analysis was done to estimate the cost per capita and cost of lifelong vaccination in Turkey in 2019. Data on current spending on vaccines, demographics, vaccination coverage rates (VCRs), publicly available vaccine list prices and overall healthcare expenditure was used. Overall annual cost of the NIP in Turkey in 2019 was €M158 which represents 0.55% of the total healthcare budget. Vaccines per capita spending in 2019 was €1.9. Cost of vaccinating an individual throughout an entire lifespan using publicly available vaccine prices and in full compliance with the NIP schedule would cost €433 to vaccinate against 13 pathogens. Results of this analysis show that even with exemplary VCRs (>95% for the last 10 years for all NIP vaccines), immunization represents just 0.55% of the total healthcare budget. Vaccine per capita cost in 2019 was €1.9, which is lower compared to other European countries, but also other pharmaceutical groups per capita spending in Turkey. Improving NIPs is important in periods when governments are looking for more efficient healthcare use, but this will require appropriate budgets to be allocated to the existing and the new vaccination programs.