Herpes Zoster Vaccine Not Included in Brazil’s National Health Plan
The Secretariat of Science, Technology and Health Innovation of the Ministry of Health has published an order deciding not too incorporate the shingles vaccine into the Unified Health System (SUS) for immunocompromised individuals aged 18 and over and those 80 years or older. The publication was made on Monday,the 12th,in the Official Gazette of the Union.
The decision maintains the negative presented in the preliminary report of the National Commission for the Incorporation of Technologies into the Unified Health system (Conitec), released in July of last year. After the report, incorporation was the subject of a public consultation between September and October, with 8,797 contributions, followed by the final opinion.
In the analysis, Conitec considered the vaccine effective in preventing shingles, but pointed out that the price would need to be negotiated to avoid compromising the budgetary sustainability of SUS.
Continues after advertising
The budgetary impact analysis considered a maximum offer of three million doses per year, which would correspond to the vaccination of 1.5 million patients, and 5,456,211 people eligible to receive the vaccine.
According to the commission, to vaccinate 1.5 million patients in the frist year, the cost would be R$ 1.2 billion,and in the fifth year,vaccinating the remaining 471,000 patients would cost R$ 380 million. “At the end of five years, the total investment would be R$ 5.2 billion. Therefore, the vaccine was considered not cost-effective,” says the August report.
The vaccine analyzed for incorporation was Shingrix,from the pharmaceutical company GSK. The vaccine was approved by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) in 2021 and is indicated for adults over 50 years of age or over 18 years of age with an increased risk of developing the disease, such as immunocompromised individuals.