Health Affairs March 17, 2025
Biomedical innovation enhances our ability to diagnose, prevent, and treat many infectious diseases, with unprecedented opportunities to reduce death and disability. Innovative vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics are generally approved for use and reimbursed based on evidence demonstrating their direct health benefits to individuals. Claims related to these individual benefits, approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), are included on the product label and in public education campaigns, and they often emphasize their impact on reducing the risk of severe infection or death.
Because infectious diseases can be transmitted to others, innovative products also provide indirect benefits to individuals who may not use them. Within a population, indirect benefits can add substantially to the direct benefits (exhibit 1). For example,...
Today's Sponsors
Today's Sponsor