One of the new flu vaccinations licensed ahead of the 2019-20 flu season will not be commissioned for the national pharmacy flu programme due to its “significantly higher list price,” NHS England has said.

A letter from NHS England issued on January 23 said that while the newly licensed cell-grown quadrivalent vaccine (QIVc) Flucelvax Tetra, which is manufactured by Seqirus, should be ordered by providers in the next flu season, Sanofi Pasteur's high-dose trivalent vaccine (TIV-HD), which was also recently licensed, will not be used in the flu programme as it “has a significantly higher list price than the equally suitable vaccines”.

Costing the NHS £20 a dose, TIV-HD is more than twice as expensive as the next most costly licensed vaccine. PSNC advises contractors not to purchase or administer it for the Advanced Flu Vaccination Service as its use will not be reimbursed. PSNC also said that while Flucelvax Tetra is now licensed, it cannot be ordered as part of the current flu vaccination programme.

The vaccines that have been used in the 2018-19 flu season – the quadrivalent inactivated vaccine (QIVc) for 18-64 year-olds in at-risk groups and other eligible groups, and the adjuvanted trivalent inactivated vaccine (aTIV) for individuals aged 65 years and older – will continue to be commissioned, NHS England said.

Relative costs

The NHS England letter sets out the prices of the licensed flu vaccines. A majority of products cost between £9.79 and £9.94 (QIVc products are available at £8 and £9.94), vastly outstripped by TIV-HD at £20 per dose.

NHS England says it “would ask providers to be cognisant of the relative costs to the NHS of the range of vaccines available in the market when ordering vaccines for the 2019-20 season”.

Prices and suppliers can be found on the BNF section of NICE’s website.