If made vaccines…...

30 April 2019

Jane Dyson - Specialist Nurse, Immunisation

Maurice Hilleman

Maurice Hilleman 1919-2005

Maurice Hilleman 1919-2005

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Background

• Born on 30 August 1919 in Montana

• Youngest of 8 children

• Twin sister died at birth

• Mother died 2 days later

• Adopted by his aunt and uncle

• Grew up working on their chicken farm

• Discovered a love of Charles Darwin and science at a young age

• Worked at JC Penney dept store

• Montana State University –Chemistry and Microbiology

• University of Chicago – PhD Microbiology

Image: American Egg Board Image: Hillemanfilm.com

Maurice Hilleman 1919-2005

1944 E.R.Squibb & Sons

•Developed Japanese B Encephalitis vaccine for US troops

1948 Walter Reed Army Institute of Research

•Chief of Respiratory Diseases Dept

•Discovered adenoviruses

•Monitored flu strains worldwide

•First identified influenza virus drift and shift

•Predicted 1957 Asian flu pandemic

•Pandemic flu vaccine

•Reduced impact of 1957 pandemic in USA by ordering 40 million doses of flu vaccine

1957-2005 Merck & Co

•Head of virus and cell biology research

•Discovered SV40

•Developed procedures to mass produce and purify interferon

•1970 Developed Marek vaccine - revolutionizing the poultry industry

•Detected hepatitis A virus

•Produced the first vaccine to protect against cancer (HepB)

•Developed over 20 vaccines

Career

Maurice Hilleman 1919-2005

• 1963 & 1968 Measles

• 1967 Mumps

• 1969 Rubella

• 1971 & 1978 MMR

• 1974 Meningococcal A disease (first polysaccharide vaccine)

• 1977 & 1983 Pneumococcal

• 1981 & 1986 Hepatitis B

• 1985 & 1987 Haemophilus influenzae B (Hib)

• 1995 Hepatitis A

• 1995 varicella (chicken pox)

Vaccines developed by Hilleman and his team at Merck

Maurice Hilleman 1919-2005

Mumps

Image: Smithsonian Institution

Maurice Hilleman 1919-2005

• 1971 Measles, mumps and rubella vaccine licenced

• 1978 M-M-R 11 rubella strain replaced with Plotkin’s Wistar strain

• 1998 Andrew Wakefield’s paper published in Lanceto Anxious parents decide not to vaccinate their children

o Hilleman receives hate mail and death threats

• 2010 Wakefield is struck off by the GMC and the Lancet retracted his paper

• 1971-2015 over 600 million doses MMR distributed worldwide (Merck)

• Since 2000 measles vaccine has saved over 17 million lives worldwide (WHO 2015)

MMR vaccine

Maurice Hilleman 1919-2005

• 1981 serum based HepB vaccine o First vaccine to be made from human blood

o Blood collected from IV drug users

o Unaware HIV emerging

o Hilleman treated the serum with 3 chemicals – urea, pepsin and formaldehyde

• First vaccine to protect against cancer

• 1986 HepB - first recombinant DNA vaccine

• Hilleman was said to be most proud of this vaccine

• 2016 HepB included in the UK routine schedule in a heptavalent vaccine

Hepatitis b vaccines

Maurice Hilleman 1919-2005

• His goal was to prevent as many bacterial and viral diseases from harming children as possible

• Ran his laboratories like military operations

• Put safety and effectiveness first

• Forceful personality

• Colourful language

• Workaholic

• Humble

Who was Maurice Hilleman?

Maurice Hilleman 1919-2005

Image: Hilleman Laboratories

Dr Maurice Ralf Hilleman30 August 1919- 11 April 2005

• Biography: Vaccinated: One Man's Quest to Defeat the World's Deadliest Diseases (Paul Offit 2007)

• Documentary: Hilleman: A Perilous Quest to Save the World's Children (Medical History Pictures 2016)

• Excerpts from the Hilleman documentary are available at https://vaccinemakers.org/resources/videos-animations

Further information

Maurice Hilleman 1919-2005