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Erschienen in: The European Journal of Health Economics 3/2018

06.02.2018 | Commentary

Comment on “Modeling the cost-effectiveness of infant vaccination with pneumococcal conjugate vaccines in Germany”

verfasst von: Afschin Gandjour

Erschienen in: The European Journal of Health Economics | Ausgabe 3/2018

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Excerpt

The paper by Kuhlmann and Graf von der Schulenburg [1] suffers from a number of shortcomings. First, the QALY calculation is flawed. Based on the data provided in Table 9 of their article (see below), dividing the number of QALYs gained by the number of life years gained yields a ratio of just 0.56. Yet, this ratio cannot be explained by the QALY weights listed in Table 6 (as a side note, the base-case values listed in Table 6 for the complications of pneumococcal infection need to refer to a loss of health-related quality of life and not to health-related quality of life per se, as presented). Even if PCV13 were purely life extending, the ratio would be larger as the lowest QALY weight in the population without pneumococcal infection is already 0.59. But in addition to its life extending effect the vaccine, of course, prevents pneumococcal infection and its complications which further increases the number of QALYs gained and therefore increases the ratio of number of QALYs to number of life years above the ratio of 0.59. In sum, the number of QALYs gained is underestimated based on the model input data.
Table 9
Reproduced from Kuhlmann and Graf von der Schulenburg [1]
 
SHI perspective
Societal perspective
Additional vaccination cost
184,327,876
184,327,876
Savings due to disease prevention
43,355,918
− 270,352,102
Life years gained
74,919
74,919
QALYs gained
41,859
41,859
ICER (cost per life year gained)
1882
5490
ICER (cost per QALY gained)
3368
9826
All costs are in euros
Literatur
1.
Zurück zum Zitat Kuhlmann, A., von der Schulenburg, J.G.: Modeling the cost-effectiveness of infant vaccination with pneumococcal conjugate vaccines in Germany. Eur J Health Econ 18(3), 273–292 (2017)CrossRefPubMed Kuhlmann, A., von der Schulenburg, J.G.: Modeling the cost-effectiveness of infant vaccination with pneumococcal conjugate vaccines in Germany. Eur J Health Econ 18(3), 273–292 (2017)CrossRefPubMed
2.
Zurück zum Zitat Garrison Jr., L.P., Mansley, E.C., Abbott 3rd, T.A., Bresnahan, B.W., Hay, J.W., Smeeding, J.: Good research practices for measuring drug costs in cost-effectiveness analyses: a societal perspective. The ISPOR Drug Cost Task Force report–Part II. Value Health 13(1), 8–13 (2010)CrossRefPubMed Garrison Jr., L.P., Mansley, E.C., Abbott 3rd, T.A., Bresnahan, B.W., Hay, J.W., Smeeding, J.: Good research practices for measuring drug costs in cost-effectiveness analyses: a societal perspective. The ISPOR Drug Cost Task Force report–Part II. Value Health 13(1), 8–13 (2010)CrossRefPubMed
Metadaten
Titel
Comment on “Modeling the cost-effectiveness of infant vaccination with pneumococcal conjugate vaccines in Germany”
verfasst von
Afschin Gandjour
Publikationsdatum
06.02.2018
Verlag
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Erschienen in
The European Journal of Health Economics / Ausgabe 3/2018
Print ISSN: 1618-7598
Elektronische ISSN: 1618-7601
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-018-0957-3

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