The economic value of a quadrivalent versus trivalent influenza vaccine.

The recently licensed quadrivalent seasonal influenza vaccine (QIV) may provide better protection than the traditional trivalent influenza vaccine (TIV) as it includes one more influenza B strain. We developed a Monte Carlo simulation model to determine the economic value of a QIV compared to the TIV for 10 influenza seasons (1999-2009). The addition of the influenza B strain to convert the TIV into a QIV could result in substantial cost-savings to society (median of $3.1 billion) and third party payers (median of $292 million), even when the cost of QIV is significantly higher.