Hepatitis B vaccine
Vacuna contra la hepatitis B
- Date
- 1963-1986 · confidence high
- Place
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
- Credited to
- Baruch Samuel Blumberg (discovery of the Australia antigen, 1963); Maurice Hilleman and Merck (first vaccine, 1981)
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
Following the discovery of the 'Australia antigen' by Baruch Blumberg in 1963 and its identification as part of the hepatitis B virus, Maurice Hilleman developed at Merck the first hepatitis B vaccine (Heptavax-B), approved in 1981 and derived from the blood plasma of virus carriers; in 1986 a recombinant version (Recombivax-HB) was approved, the first human vaccine produced by genetic engineering.
Blumberg received the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the Australia antigen and its role in developing the vaccine.
What it led to
- the first vaccine against a human cancer, by preventing the hepatocellular carcinoma associated with hepatitis B
- the first human vaccine produced via recombinant DNA (1986)
- a drastic worldwide reduction in chronic hepatitis B infection