Abstract

In June 2016 the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) announced that the mandate of Canada’s NITAG, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) will be expanded. In addition to the assessment of vaccine characteristics (safety, efficacy, effectiveness, and immunogenicity), NACI will also be assessing additional programmatic elements including economic evaluations, feasibility of implementation, acceptability, ethics and equity. 

As vaccine programs are delivered by individual provinces and territories in Canada, integrated and comprehensive guidance from NACI is expected to support local decision making on vaccine programs. The implementation of the expanded NACI mandate will take place over the next few years to facilitate the development of new methods and processes, which are being informed through pilot projects and stakeholder consultations. This work will include the development of guidelines on economic evaluations for vaccines. To support NACI’s expanded mandate, additional committee members have been appointed with expertise in pharmacoeconomics and the NACI Secretariat within PHAC has appointed a health economist. 

  • Canada