Investigational anthrax vaccines
A number of experimental anthrax vaccines are undergoing pre-clinical testing, notably the Bacillus anthracis protective antigen—known as PA (see Anthrax toxin—combined with various adjuvants such as aluminum hydroxide (Alhydrogel), saponin QS-21, and monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL) in squalene/lecithin/Tween 80 emulsion (SLT). One dose of each formulation has provided significant protection (> 90%) against inhalational anthrax in rhesus macaques. Omer-2 trial: Beginning in 1998 and running for eight years, a secret Israeli project known as Omer-2 tested an Israeli investigational anthrax vaccine on 716 volunteers of the Israel Defense Forces. The vaccine—given under a seven-dose schedule—was developed by the Nes Tziona Biological Institute. A group of study volunteers complained of multi-symptom illnesses allegedly associated with the vaccine and petitioned for disability benefits to the Defense Ministry, but were denied. In February 2009, a petition from the volunteers to disclose a report about Omer-2 was filed with the Israels High Court against the Defense Ministry, the Israel Institute for Biological Research at Nes Tziona, the director, Avigdor Shafferman, and the IDF Medical Corps. Release of the information was requested to support further action to provide disability compensation for the volunteers. In 2014 it was announced that the Israeli government would pay $6 million compensation to the 716 soldiers who participated in the Omer-2 trial. In 2012, B. anthracis isolate H9401 was obtained from a Korean patient with gastrointestinal anthrax. The goal of the Republic of Korea is to use this strain as a challenge strain to develop a recombinant vaccine against anthrax.
This discovery revolutionized work in infectious diseases and Pasteur gave these artificially weakened diseases the generic name "vaccines", in honor of Jenners groundbreaking discovery. In 1885, Pasteur produced his celebrated first vaccine for rabies by growing the virus in rabbits and then weakening it by drying the affected nerve tissue. In 1995, the centennial of Pasteurs death, The New York Times ran an article titled "Pasteurs Deception". After having thoroughly read Pasteurs lab notes, the science historian Gerald L. Geison declared Pasteur had given a misleading account of the preparation of the anthrax vaccine used in the experiment at Pouilly-le-Fort. The same year, Max Perutz published a vigorous defense of Pasteur in The New York Review of Books. Sternes vaccine
The Austrian-South African immunologist Max Sterne (1905–1997) developed an attenuated live animal vaccine in 1935 that is still employed and derivatives of his strain account for almost all veterinary anthrax vaccines used in the world today. Beginning in 1934 at the Onderstepoort Veterinary Research Institute, north of Pretoria, he prepared an attenuated anthrax vaccine, using the method developed by Pasteur. A persistent problem with Pasteurs vaccine was achieving the correct balance between virulence and immunogenicity during preparation. This notoriously difficult procedure regularly produced casualties among vaccinated animals. With little help from colleagues, Sterne performed small-scale experiments which isolated the "Sterne strain" (34F2) of anthrax which became, and remains today, the basis of most of the improved livestock anthrax vaccines throughout the world.