COVID-19 Vaccination Burden in Asia

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had severely impacted the global economies and posed an additional and unwanted burden on their healthcare systems. However, very limited research has been conducted to evaluate the pharmacoeconomic burden of COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19 vaccination programs in Asian countries. Therefore, we aimed to design a systematic review to evaluate pharmacoeconomic burden of COVID-19 vaccines in Asian countries. For this systematic review, we have followed the “Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA)” guidelines to fulfill the study aim and objectives. The databases used for data extraction and collection included PubMed, MEDLINE and EBSCO until November 30, 2025. Only those studies have been extracted that has published from May 2020 to June 2025. The quality of reporting of the included studies was checked using the Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards (CHEERS) checklist. A total of 170 articles related to pharmacoeconomic burden of COVID-19 vaccination in Asian countries were found, and after following the inclusion criteria, 10 studies were selected for this systematic review. Different economic evaluation parameters i.e., total vaccine cost, total population size, COVID-19 vaccine utility and COVID-19 vaccination efficacy were evaluated. All of the included studies suggested that COVID-19 vaccination was a cost-saving or cost-effective intervention for combating COVID-19 pandemic and to overcome its devastating impact on the healthcare budgets of the countries. Although the COVID-19 outbreak had a significant impact on Asian economies, and contemporary efforts were made to initiate various COVID-19 vaccination programs which were way expensive and were difficult to afford in low- and middle-incomed countries in Asia.