Vacagen Oral Vaccine Tablets, No. 4534, 20 Enteric-Coated Tablets

Vial of 20 Vacogen oral vaccine tablets made by Sharp & Dohme. According to a 1947 advertisement appearing in medical journals, the oral vaccine tablets were "an effective, convenient means of stimulating specific immunity against acute bacterial infections of the upper respiratory tract." The tablets contained "the water-soluble antigenic fractions of approximately 100,000 million organisms": Pneumococcus (50,000 million), Beta hemolytic streptococcus (20, 000 million), Influenza bacillus (10,000 million), M. catarrhalis (5,000 million), and Friedlander bacillus (5, 000 million), Staphylococcus aureus (10,000 million). [advertisement in Southern Medical Journal, January 1947, page 27]

This object was part of an exhibit on the manufacture and use of biological vaccines for the treatment of smallpox, respiratory infections, influenza, measles, and scarlet fever. Under the direction of the Smithsonian’s curator of medicine, the pharmaceutical company, Sharp & Dohme, designed and produced the exhibit which was installed at the Smithsonian in September 1947. The company became a major U.S. producer of biological products including many vaccines, serums, and antitoxins, after acquiring H. K. Mulford & Company in 1929. The Mulford Company was a pioneer in the commercial development of biologicals in the United States beginning with the production of a diphtheria antitoxin in the mid-1890s.

Currently not on view