Producing, controlling, and stabilizing Pasteur's anthrax vaccine: creating a new industry and a health market

Duclaux, Chamberland, Roux, Grancher, and Metchnikoff: the five musketeers of Louis Pasteur

The Institut Pasteur was created thanks to worldwide generosity with the aim to welcome and treat rabies patients, to provide a place for scientific research and to offer new teaching programs in microbiology. Louis Pasteur invited his main collaborators, who had accompanied him during his previous investigations at École Normale Supérieure, to join him in his new institute. They contributed to the principle discoveries of Pasteur, such as the fight against spontaneous generation, the identification of the ferments of putrefaction, the fight against the silk worm disease, the research on wine and beer, and the set-up of the first vaccines against avian cholera, anthrax, swine erysipelas and rabies. There were two scientists, Émile Duclaux and Charles Chamberland, and two medical doctors, Émile Roux, and Joseph Grancher. In addition, two Russian scientists were invited to join the Institute and to head a research laboratory, Élie Metchnikoff and Nikolaï Gamaleïa, the later will finally never join the institute.

Duclaux, Chamberland, Roux, Grancher, and Metchnikoff: the five musketeers of Louis Pasteur

The Institut Pasteur was created, thanks to worldwide generosity with the aim to welcome and treat rabies patients, to provide a place for scientific research and to offer new teaching programs in microbiology. Louis Pasteur invited his main collaborators, who had accompanied him during his previous investigations at École Normale Supérieure, to join him in his new institute. They contributed to the principle discoveries of Pasteur, such as the fight against spontaneous generation, the identification of the ferments of putrefaction, the fight against the silk worm disease, the research on wine and beer, and the set-up of the first vaccines against avian cholera, anthrax, swine erysipelas, and rabies. There were two scientists, Émile Duclaux and Charles Chamberland, and two medical doctors, Émile Roux, and Joseph Grancher. In addition, two Russian scientists were invited to join the Institute and to head a research laboratory, Élie Metchnikoff and Nikolaï Gamaleïa; the later will finally never join the institute.

Dilemmas of a vitalizing vaccine market: lessons from the MMR vaccine/autism debate

A number of issues related to vaccines and vaccinations in society are discussed in this paper. Our purpose is to merge an analysis of some recent changes in the vaccine market with social science research on the relationship between citizens and authorities. The article has two empirical parts. The first shows how the vaccine market, which for many years has had immense financial problems, nowadays seems to becoming economically vitalized, mostly due to the production of new and profitable vaccines. However prosperous the future may appear, certain reactions from the public regarding vaccination initiatives offer insight into inherent problems of vaccine policies in many Western countries. In the second part of the article, these problems are exemplified with the recent controversy over the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine. We conclude that in spite of the improving profit-margins, the vaccine market remains vulnerable and insecure. Vaccines are permeated by society, even more so than pharmaceutics that are used to cure or alleviate illnesses. Radical changes in financial conditions with promises of a more profitable market will not, we argue, solve other even more fundamental problems.