Tool pinpoints acceptable pricing of combination vaccines.(Brief Article)

2002 JUN 26 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Four infant vaccines. One injection. How much will the industry charge? How much is a parent willing to pay? How much will government and insurance cover? Such issues are becoming real, says a University of Illinois researcher who has developed a mathematically based analysis tool to help pinpoint acceptable pricing.

"If you look around the world right now, combination vaccines are being used in Canada and Europe with tremendous success," said Sheldon H. Jacobson, a professor of mechanical and industrial engineering in the UI College of Engineering. "We initially analyzed the value of four particular combination vaccines, but our tool is really applicable to any combination, and there are several now on the horizon of reaching the FDA for approval. Such approval is going to happen."

His analysis tool incorporates a Monte Carlo simulation and an integer programming model, allowing researchers to study the various relationships of vaccine costs and any number of individual factors, including individual and societal benefits. The tool - described in the Health Care Management Science - computes an optimum price for a combination vaccine to meet a manufacturer's targeted market share.

Primary concerns for parents, Jacobson said, are the costs of injections, the number required per office visit and the pain associated with each injection. Many parents, fearing that four recommended shots at one visit are too many, choose to get two for their child at one office visit and return later, but they don't follow through. Noncompliance can lead to a resurgence of the diseases the immunizations protect against.

A pilot study by Jacobson, in which he weighed the economic value of combining vaccines to reduce the number of injections or clinical visits, was published in 1998. Since then, he has increased the model's capabilities to encompass any number of considerations. ...