JOINT INFLUENZA VACCINE EFFECTIVENESS STUDIES

The scope of the action includes the development and validation of a sustainable governance model for the evaluation of type/brand-specific seasonal influenza vaccine effectiveness in Europe, through collaboration between public and private partners. Furthermore, the scope of the action is to build an EU/EEA-wide recognised and accepted platform for influenza vaccine effectiveness studies, including the development of tools for communication and dissemination of the results obtained from the studies.

A strengthened capacity in Europe to monitor the effectiveness of the yearly seasonal influenza vaccines across age, risk groups and vaccines is needed. National public health bodies have a role in assessing national vaccination programmes, and vaccine manufacturers are accountable for the quality and integrity of vaccine product-specific data presented to regulatory authorities. Collaboration and partnership amongst public health institutes, regulatory bodies and vaccine manufacturers is therefore necessary to build a strong platform to perform influenza effectiveness assessments

It is expected that the action will result in better information for healthcare professionals and the general public about the performance of the influenza vaccines in use, better information on the performance of national immunization programmes, improved understanding of the benefits of influenza vaccination, and better understanding of the factors that impact influenza vaccine effectiveness. The action will likely positively influence societal acceptance of influenza vaccines, result in improved vaccine coverage in the EU and ultimately reduced disease burden.

If successful, the model could be expanded to evaluation of all other vaccines used in national/sub-national immunisation programmes.