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Maurice Hilleman, who died on 11 April 2005 at the age of 85, has left behind a legacy of more than 40 vaccines that save around eight million lives a year.
Dr Hilleman spent most of his working life with Merck Sharp & Dohme’s parent company in the US, Merck & Co, joining in 1957 as director of a new department of Virus and Cell Biology, and retiring from the company in 1984.
During his time with Merck & Co, Dr Hilleman’s focus was very much on the practical application of science. In a 1999 Philadelphia Enquirer article that profiled his life, Dr Hilleman was quoted as saying “Goddamit, science has to produce something useful. That’s the payback to society for support of the enterprise.”
And produce something useful he did. In his long career, Dr Hilleman pioneered the development of numerous vaccines including those for measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, Marek’s Disease, hepatitis A, and hepatitis B. He was also a co-discoverer of the adenoviruses, and discovered changes in the flu virus known as ‘drift’. By monitoring these changes, public health agencies now track new flu viruses and create vaccines to prevent them.
“It is no exaggeration to say that Dr Hilleman’s work has saved millions of lives,”
said Maureen Dawson, Franchise Group Manager – Vaccines for Merck Sharp & Dohme (NZ) Ltd.
“Nearly every time a baby is vaccinated in New Zealand, or around the world for that matter, we have that vaccine because of Maurice Hilleman. He was involved in every aspect of vaccine research and development, and thanks to his work we have the means to prevent and control a number of the world’s most important diseases.”
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