Collaboration and HTA reform key to improving vaccination rates in Australia

Recognizing the full value that vaccines deliver to society and ensuring equitable access to affordable vaccines will be crucial to increasing vaccination rates as a preventive measure to fight diseases in Australia, experts have told Parliamentarians recently.

The Parliamentary Friends of Medicine ‘Future of Vaccines’ event, co-chaired by the Members of Parliament Dr David Gillespie and Dr Mike Freelander and hosted by pharma trade group Medicines Australia’s Vaccines Industry Group, examined existing and emerging infectious diseases, novel vaccines in development, and the barriers and opportunities to vaccine access and uptake in Australia.

Reflecting on his experience as a pediatrician earlier in his career, Dr Freelander said thousands of children suffered from measles and polio before affordable vaccines were available. “We have forgotten what it’s like to have widespread infectious disease in the community,” he said.