Public health and economic impact of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in US adults aged ≥50 years.

BACKGROUND: A 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) was recently developed for use in older adults, and may be effective not only against invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) but also nonbacteremic pneumococcal pneumonia. The potential public health and economic impact of PCV13 in this population is unknown.

METHODS: A microsimulation model depicting risk and costs of IPD and all-cause nonbacteremic pneumonia (NBP) in US adults aged ≥50 years (n=96.1 million), as well as expected impact of vaccination, was developed. Effectiveness of PPSV23 was based on published literature, and for all-cause NBP, was zero; effectiveness of PCV13 was based on PCV7 data in children, and for all-cause NBP, was varied across a reasonable range. Lifetime outcomes and costs were projected assuming: (1) use of PCV13 in all subjects at model entry, with and without periodic revaccination; and (2) use of PPSV23 per current ACIP recommendations.

RESULTS: Use of PCV13 in all subjects at model entry without revaccination - in lieu of PPSV23 use per recommendations - reduced cases of IPD by 15,000 (95% CI 9000-21,000); cases of NBP by 1.2 million (0.9-1.5); total healthcare costs by $3.5 billion (1.9-5.2); and total societal costs by $7.4 billion (5.3-9.8). Use of PCV13 with revaccination every 5-10 years resulted in fewest cases of disease and lowest total costs. Findings were largely unchanged in sensitivity analyses.

CONCLUSIONS: Assuming that the effectiveness of PCV13 in adults is comparable to that observed for PCV7 in children and under reasonable assumptions regarding the underlying risks and costs of IPD and NBP, model projections suggest that routine use of PCV13 - in lieu of PPSV23 - would result in a greater reduction in the overall burden of pneumococcal disease in older US adults.