Vaccines
Vaccines have played a critical role in helping control some of the most dangerous illnesses like polio, measles, and rubella, and eradicated smallpox globally.
Over the last 30 years in the U.S., childhood vaccines have prevented more than one million early deaths. Vaccines have also greatly reduced the severity and toll of many diseases, such as flu, RSV and shingles. From saving lives to promoting healthy aging, vaccines play an important role across the human lifespan.
Vaccines Help Leave Serious Disease In The Past
Diseases |
Annual Morbidity(20th Century) |
Reported Cases(2024) |
Percent Decrease |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Diphtheria |
21,053 |
1 |
99% |
|
Smallpox |
29,005 |
0 |
100% |
|
Measels |
530,217 |
266 |
> 99% |
|
Mumps |
162,344 |
358 |
> 99% |
|
Rubella |
47,745 |
9 |
> 99% |
|
Polio |
16,316 |
0 |
100% |
|
Tetanus |
580 |
32 |
94% |
Different vaccines offer varying types of protection depending on the disease
Vaccines prime your immune system to recognize and combat infections. By teaching your body to recognize specific dangerous pathogens, vaccines help ensure your immune system is prepared to fight an infection or prevent it.
Vaccines Can Help in Many Different Ways
Some vaccines prevent you from contracting or transmitting a specific disease, while others decrease the severity and impact of a disease.
Flu vaccination prevented an estimated 7.1 million influenza cases, 3.4 million medical visits, 100,000 hospitalizations and 7,100 deaths, between 2019-2020 – the last flu season prior to the pandemic.
The vaccine for whooping cough is effective in reducing severity of a disease that previously killed 1 in 10 children who became infected prior to the availability of the vaccine.
Vaccine preventable diseases like influenza and shingles can lead to increased risk of other conditions and comorbidities in older adults, such as cardiovascular and neurovascular complications.
Timely vaccination could help save these lives.
Measles is one of the most contagious infections in the world. One dose of the MMR vaccine is 93% effective at preventing measles, and a second dose increases its effectiveness to 97%. It is recommended that children receive two doses.
Developing a new vaccine is a lengthy, challenging and expensive process, largely driven by the biopharmaceutical industry
New vaccine development requires large-scale clinical trials, and total development costs that can exceed $1 billion.
U.S. leadership in vaccine innovation benefits American security
Health benefits
21 diseases in the United States are now preventable due to childhood vaccines, preventing an estimated 508 million illnesses, 32 million hospitalizations and over 1.1 million deaths among children born between 1994 and 2023. This includes polio prevention, which has been hailed a significant public health victory.
Security benefits
The ability to develop vaccines quickly and without relying on other countries makes America more secure.
The U.S was able to mobilize quickly to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic with a safe and effective vaccine in record time, saving millions from severe illness and death and well over billions in avoidable health care costs.
Health system
Vaccines save millions in avoidable health care costs.
$1.15 trillion in medical cost savings realized through the use of COVID-19 vaccines the first two years they were available.
Manufacturing footprint
Biopharmaceutical research companies have manufacturing facilities across the United States from Montana to North Carolina, supporting vaccine production. These complex and highly specialized facilities play a vital role in protecting the health and leadership of all Americans.
Vaccine preventable diseases cost the U.S. billions of dollars each year.
Throughout history, examples of vaccine victories for public health are numerous and significant
Human papilloma virus (HPV)
The introduction of the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine has changed the trajectory of cervical cancer incidence, as well as other HPV-related cancers and infections by decreasing viral infection by 88% in teen girls and 81% in young adult women. Among vaccinated women aged 20 to 24, the incidence rate of cervical cancer dropped 65% from 2012 to 2019.
Influenza
Flu vaccination prevented an estimated 7.1 million influenza cases, 3.4 million medical visits, 100,000 hospitalizations and 7,100 deaths, between 2019-2020 in the United States — the last flu season prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Smallpox
Smallpox, at one point one of the deadliest diseases in human existence, has been eradicated around the world as a result of vaccination.
Polio
Following the introduction of the first polio vaccine in 1955, this crippling infectious disease has been eliminated in the U.S. and polio vaccines have prevented an estimated 20 million cases of paralysis in children worldwide since 1988.
Whooping cough
The vaccine for whooping cough (pertussis) is effective in reducing severity of a disease that previously killed one in every ten children who became infected prior to the availability of the vaccine. The introduction of routine immunization for pertussis saw a 150-fold reduction in cases.
The Vaccine Lifecycle
Vaccines traditionally undergo years of testing in rigorous clinical trials involving thousands of patient volunteers to help ensure safety and effectiveness.
Once authorized or approved, government agencies develop the appropriate recommendations for who should receive which immunizations and on what schedule. Biopharmaceutical companies, FDA and CDC closely monitor the safety and effectiveness of vaccines the entire time they are available to patients.
We talk about how we have a health care system—in many ways, we have a sickness system. We really need to shift the focus to what we can do to prevent disease and also modulate disease to help people live healthier, longer lives.
Dr. Len Friedland
Vice President and Director of Scientific Affairs and Public Health at GSK
Our Work in Action
With the support of a unique ecosystem and policy environment that foster transformative advancements, this progress positions America as the global leader in biopharmaceutical innovation.
