| Summary: | Infection with high-risk human papilloma virus (HPV) types 16 and/or 18 is documented to be related to cervical, vulvar, vaginal, penile, anal and oropharyngeal cancer, while infection with low-risk HPV types 6 and/or 11 is documented to be related with genital warts. This economic evaluation examines the cost-effectiveness of vaccinating both 12-year-old boys and girls against HPV-infection compared to maintaining the current practice of vaccinating only 12-year-old girls. Two vaccines (both delivered in a 3-dose schedule) are available on the Norwegian market with documented effect against HPV-infection: the quadrivalent vaccine is directed at HPV 6, 11, 16 and 18 and the bivalent vaccine is directed at HPV 16 and 18. In this report, we estimated the cost-effectiveness of the quadrivalent vaccine for the target population, as this is the vaccine currently offered in the vaccine program for girls. The cost-effectiveness of the bivalent vaccine is discussed in a scenario analysis. The main finding of the evaluation is the following:1. From a societal perspective, vaccinating boys in addition to girls aged 12 with the quadrivalent vaccine is probably not cost-effective. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) was NOK 1,626,261 for a quality-adjusted life-year (QALY). Although there is no official cost-effectiveness threshold value in Norway, such high ICERs are generally associated with the intervention not being accepted for implementation in the Norwegian health sector
|
|---|