Rollout of Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Saved Lives, Health Care Dollars

THURSDAY, May 19, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine contributed to substantial public health impact and vaccine-preventable cost savings in the first year of its U.S. rollout, according to a study published online May 15 in the Journal of Medical Economics.

Manuela Di Fusco, from Pfizer Inc. in New York City, and colleagues developed a combined Markov decision tree model to compare clinical and economic outcomes of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine (BNT162b2) versus no vaccination in individuals aged ≥12 years during the first year of its U.S. rollout.

The researchers found that in 2021, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine helped avert almost 9 million symptomatic cases, close to 700,000 hospitalizations, and over 110,000 deaths, resulting in an estimated $30.4 billion direct health care cost savings, $43.7 billion indirect cost savings related to productivity loss, as well as discounted gains of 1.1 million quality adjusted life years. These results were robust and findings remained consistent with the use of alternative plausible ranges of parameters.

"[The finding] supports U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations for broad use of the vaccine, and highlights the opportunity to continue widespread uptake to prevent COVID-19-related disease and generate substantial benefits from a broad, patient-centric, societal perspective," the authors write.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to Pfizer, which funded the study.

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