The Committee was informed of the work of an ad hoc Advisory Committee on priority vaccines convened as a result of a recommendation made by the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) in 2002 to "establish an expert advisory committee with worldwide representation to develop a mechanism for prioritisation of vaccines for a model essential vaccine list for immunisation programmes".

The Advisory Committee recommended the establishment of national lists of essential vaccines and suggested that the construction of such lists would be facilitated by the creation of a Global Model List of Essential Vaccines as well as an evidence-based library of essential vaccines. In addition, the Advisory Committee considered that, as there are fundamental differences between medicines and vaccines, an evidence-based Global Model List of Essential Vaccines should be separate from the Model List of Essential Medicines. It was also proposed that, once a list of essential vaccines had been established, vaccines should be taken off the Model List, although the two lists should refer to each other. Whereas the traditional children's vaccines would be included in the new list automatically, all other vaccines should be subjected to evaluation by an Expert Committee before inclusion. It was anticipated that a procedure similar to that used for updating the Model List of Essential Medicines could be followed.

The Advisory Committee also considered that while the creation of a Global Model List of Essential Vaccines would be of great value, the emphasis should remain on the development of national and/or regional lists based on the information provided in an essential vaccines library. The Advisory Committee therefore recommended that criteria for prioritizing vaccines for inclusion in national lists be developed. A draft list of such criteria has been prepared, and will be subjected to external review and tested before use. The recommendations of the Advisory Committee will be presented to SAGE in July 2003.