The delivery of COVID-19 (C19) vaccines posed unprecedented challenges in terms of delivery volume and new target populations. Meanwhile, what it costs to deliver these vaccines remains highly uncertain.
To support governments in planning and budgeting for the C19 vaccination programs, ThinkWell, partnering with Genesis Analytics and the Hanoi University of Public Health, conducted retrospective, bottom-up studies to estimate the cost of delivering C19 vaccines in Vietnam and Côte d’Ivoire.
- In Vietnam, the financial cost of delivering C19 vaccines was $0.59 per dose while the economic cost per dose was $1.73.
- In Côte d’Ivoire the financial cost per dose was $0.67, while the economic costs were much higher at $3.16 per dose.
- In both countries, financial costs were relatively low, likely due to lack of funding as opposed to low financial requirements to support vaccinations. Financial costs were also lower than predicted by COVAX.
- Higher economic costs in both countries show reliance on existing resources and volunteers, which likely caused disruptions to the delivery of other health and would not be sustainable in the long run.
- Evidence from both countries shows higher costs at lower delivery volumes, which is relevant to consider for the next phase of C19 vaccination programs, as they are likely to involve reduced delivery volume.
- Additional findings and methods can be found in the full reports for the studies in Vietnamand Côte d’Ivoire.
These studies are part of multi-country project that utilizes standardized methods to generate cost evidence on the delivery of C19 vaccines in low- and middle-income countries. Study reports on the cost of delivering C19 vaccines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Uganda, Bangladesh, and the Philippines will be published in the following months.
Author: Flavia Moi (ThinkWell)