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news.Non-profit biomedical research association Wistar Institute has licensed the seed stock for its successful rubella vaccine to Russian firm Microgen for what was described as a modest fee.
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Developed in the 1960s at Wistar, the rubella vaccine has eradicated the disease in the US, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Due to the lack of wide availability to such a vaccine in the Russian Federation and the Newly Independent States (NIS), rubella still remains a serious problem.
“Eradicating rubella is a significant global public health priority, and The Wistar Institute is eager to ensure that the benefits of this vaccine are available to people worldwide,” said Dr Russel Kaufman, president and CEO of The Wistar Institute.
Congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) is an important cause of severe birth defects. When a woman is infected with the rubella vaccine early in pregnancy, she has a 90% chance of passing the virus on to her fetus. The virus can kill the fetus or cause CRS. Although CRS can be a relatively mild disease in children, in fetuses it causes deafness, blindness, mental retardation, and other birth defects.
Scientists at The Wistar Institute began work on the vaccine after a pandemic of rubella swept across Europe and the US in 1963 and 1964, leaving in its wake about 12,000 infants born deaf or deaf and blind. Their rubella vaccine was introduced for use by physicians in 1969, signaling the beginning of the end for the virus in the US.