Vaccine development: A historical perspective Foziyah Zakir 1 , Farah Islam 2 , Aamena Jabeen 2 , Sivakumar Sivagurunathan Moni 2* 1 Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, India 2 College of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutics, Jazan University, Jazan 45142, Saudi Arabia Abstract Prevention from disease is always better than cure. The concept of preventing disease originated during the 17th century when Edward Jenner an English physician contributed to eradicating smallpox. Jenner's work is widely regarded as the foundation of prophylactic measure of disease by the vaccine, the term derived from "Vacca” means cow. The concept of the vaccine is slowly traveling from prophylaxis to therapeutic. However, therapeutic vaccines are under research and development. The first vaccine was developed using virus-infected lesions and in later stages many different types of vaccines such as toxoid vaccines, live attenuated vaccines, inactivated or killed vaccines and subunit vaccines have been formed. Modern advancement in biotechnology research had laid down for the development of the recombinant vaccine. However, the future trend of vaccine development is towards recombinant DNA technology and therapeutic vaccine for targeted diseases. This review article focuses on the historical perspectives of vaccine and the development of the vaccine as it is a core area of research where the life of the human is saved from various possible diseases Keywords: Historical perspectives, Contributions, Prophylactic vaccine, Modern vaccine. Accepted on April 29, 2019 Introduction Edward Jenner and vaccines Prevention is better than cure is the common proverb of the public across the world. Preventing infectious diseases by the vaccine is the most successful medical invention in the modern therapeutic era. The miracle of vaccines improved the status of public health across the world. This miracle was invented accidentally by Edward Jenner between 1749-1823 during 1796. Jenner met a dairymaid and heard her saying that "I shall never have an ugly pockmarked face". Jenner then understood that there are some principles due to which dairy maids were protected from this dreadful smallpox disease. This incidence made Jenner follow a path, in May 1796, Jenner observed a young dairymaid who had fresh cowpox lesions on her hand. Jenner inoculated the matter from the leisions of dairymaid's hands to James Phipps, eight year old boy. After 9 days the boy developed mild fever, discomfort, cold and loss of appetite, later he recovered. After two months in July 1796, once again Jenner inoculated the boy with fresh smallpox lesion. But the boy did not develop any disease and confirmed the protection. In the year 1797, Jenner had sent a short communication to the Royal society regarding his findings but it was rejected. In the next year, Jenner studied by experimenting with various cases and published a small booklet called "An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae". Jenner termed his finding as “Vaccine” derived from “Vacca” means cow [1]. Later Jenner tried the same experiment on his baby son and other children, all were protected from smallpox [2]. After these findings, Jenner spent the rest of his professional life by supplying cowpox material to others across the world and explained the scientific background. He himself called him “Vaccine Clerk to the World”. On recognizing his work in 1802 the British Government awarded him £10,000 and followed by the year 1807 he received £20,000 [3]. Few days before his death, Jenner stated to a friend: "I am not surprised that men are not grateful to me, but I wonder that they are not grateful to God for the good which he has made me the instrument of conveying to my fellow creatures [4]. Though Jenner’s work benefited to the society of human beings, later many controversies against Jenner’s concept and anti-vaccination movements were developed in England when Government made vaccination compulsory [5]. By the year 1853 England Government introduced compulsory vaccination, with fines for non-cooperatives and imprisonment for non-payment. Later in 1885, Louis Pasteur developed rabies vaccine, actually, it was rabies antitoxin that was much useful as a post-infection antidote and explained the association between cow and cowpox to include all inoculating agents [6]. This serves as a base for current vaccine production from a suspension of live or inactivated microorganisms. Later many researchers have contributed to the development of vaccines for preventing from various infectious diseases so-called prophylaxis. ISSN 0970-938X www.biomedres.info Biomed Res 2019 Volume 30 Issue 3 Biomedical Research 2019; 30 (3): 452-455 452