The polio vaccine
A disease that paralysed children is defeated, and the patent is given away.
- When
- Era
- Contemporary, Holocene
Salk's inactivated vaccine is declared safe and effective in April 1955 after the largest medical trial ever conducted, involving 1.8 million children. Asked who owned the patent, Salk said the people, and could you patent the sun. Sabin's oral vaccine follows. Cases have fallen by over 99 per cent worldwide and wild poliovirus now circulates in only a small number of areas.