Expert organizations point to adult immunization as a means to advance better health for citizens, fiscal sustainability, and economic growth across the rapidly ageing G20

New York, NEW YORK & Tokyo, JAPAN (August 5, 2019) – Today, the Global Coalition on Aging (GCOA) and the Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI) published a new report, Measures to Ensure Healthy Ageing. The report connects economic growth and fiscal sustainability to healthy ageing and preventive healthcare measures, and points, in particular, to vaccines for adults as a key strategy. The report summarizes recommendations based on a policy roundtable convened by GCOA and HGPI, on June 5, alongside the G20 Finance Ministers Meeting.

“Japan’s focus on ageing as a major theme of our G20 leadership and status as the world’s oldest nation gives us a platform to highlight the connections between healthy ageing and a healthy economy,” said Ryoji Noritake, CEO of HGPI. “Sending a clear message about the value and importance of vaccines at all ages, and particularly for adults, is an opportunity for Japan to demonstrate our leadership, not just in business and innovation, but also on healthy ageing. Our ability to ensure lasting health for our ageing population will increasingly define our future success as a society and as an advanced economy.”

The June roundtable, which took place at the Nikkei Head Office in Tokyo, brought together global and Japanese leaders from government, the private sector, academia, and global institutions to recommend policy directions for G20 Leaders attending the Finance Meeting, as well as those who will be attending the Health Ministers Meeting in October.

HGPI and GCOA jointly developed the following policy recommendations coming out of discussion at the roundtable:

• Policy dialogue conversations on fiscal sustainability must consider how economic growth can be integrated with ageing, where vaccines for all ages can play a central role;
• Governments and national leaders must strengthen preventative healthcare measures, which are crucial to economic growth and healthy ageing;
• Government must bolster efforts to communicate the safety, efficacy, value, and further innovation of vaccines, which are vital to preventative healthcare measures; and
• Multi-sector collaboration is essential to the promotion of healthy ageing, preventative healthcare measures, and vaccine uptake.

“With 100 year lives rapidly becoming the norm in G20 countries, and older adults the fastest growing age group, the future sustainability of our public health systems and continued economic growth increasingly rest on our ability to extend the health, wellbeing, and productivity of older adults,” said Global Coalition on Aging CEO, Michael Hodin. “Vaccines, long a public health best practice for children, must now become a central feature of countries’ healthy ageing and health prevention strategies for our 21st century, where there are more old than young. Policies to advance vaccines for adults are among the most cost-efficient and health-effective strategies we have at hand.”

About the Health and Global Policy Institute
The Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI) is a Tokyo-based independent and non-profit health policy think tank, established in 2004. Since its establishment, HGPI has been working to help citizens shape health policies by generating policy options, and to bring stakeholders together as a non-partisan think-tank. HGPI’s mission is to improve the civic mind and the well-being of individuals, and to foster sustainable, healthy communities by shaping ideas and values, reaching out on global needs, and influencing society. HGPI is committed to activities that bring together relevant players in different fields, in order to provide innovative and practical solutions, and to help interested citizens understand policy options from a global, broad, and long-term perspective. For more information, visit https://hgpi.org/en/.