[Henry Toussaint and Louis Pasteur. Rivalry over a vaccine]

Henry Toussaint (1847-1890) is a veterinary who studied in Veterinary School of Lyon with his great master Auguste Chauveau the famous physiologist. This place is the First School founded in Europe at the end of the XVIIIth century and has opened a way of thinking. His carrer brilliant and rich begins first in Lyon and then when he is named Professor of Anatomy and Physiology at the Veterinary School of Toulouse. Doctor of Science and Doctor of Medecine Toussaint applies "the experimental method" to his research in his laboratory and makes a lot of publications. He starts with Anatomy, then Physiology and soon he prioritizes his research to infestious diseases which cause serious damage to cattle in this time. He developes his own methods about anthrax an its "bacteridie", its nature, its way of culture and especially he studies the physiopathology of this disease. Pasteur is a renowned scientist who does study Microbiology at the same time in his laboratory in Paris, and precisely anthrax. He has explained his theories about "microbes" and has predominant advice. Toussaint admires Pasteur; in the year 1879 he finds first and isolates the microbe of "cholera des poules" (now Pasteurella) and gives Pasteur this new germ which will be used by Pasteur for his particular works about reducing of virulence by successive subcultures. In 1880 with his publishing on July 12 at the Academy of Science, Toussaint presents his successful result with an attenuated vaccine against anthrax: he has got protection against anthrax for dogs and sheep by using a vaccine which he has reduced off virulence by chemical manner. Academy congratulates him. Pasteur jealous of one's reputation contests the demonstration of Toussaint because he does not believe in the chemical method too different from his tests but will make use of this method for an experience open to the public in Pouilly-le-Fort in 1881. After this promotional event Pasteur will product and sell vaccines maked in his laboratory in Paris with the first chemical method of Toussaint. Pasteur gets glory and money. In the following time Toussaint tries another research on tuberculosis but soon he feels the first attacks of a neurologic illness and inescapably his mind declines until the death in 1890.

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

When Pasteur and Chamberland hastily set up their small biological industry to meet the agricultural demand for the anthrax vaccine, their methods for preparation and production had not yet been stabilized. The process of learning how to standardize biological products was accelerated in 1882 when vaccination accidents required the revision of production norms as the first hypotheses on fixity, inalterability, and transportability of vaccines were invalidated and replaced by procedures for continuous monitoring of the calibration of vaccines and the renewal of vaccine strains. Initially, the incompleteness and ongoing development of production standards justified Pasteur's monopoly on the production of the anthrax vaccine under his immediate supervision. Later on, the Pasteur Institute maintained control of these standards in the framework of a commercial monopoly that it established on the veterinary vaccines first sent and then cultivated abroad by the Société de Vulgarisation du Vaccin Charbonneux Pasteur, founded in 1886.

Anthrax vaccines: Pasteur to the present

Anthrax has been a major cause of death in grazing animals and an occasional cause of death in humans for thousands of years. Since the late 1800s there has been an exceptional international history of anthrax vaccine development. Due to animal vaccinations, the rate of infection has dropped dramatically. Anthrax vaccines have progressed from uncharacterized whole-cell vaccines in 1881, to pXO2-negative spores in the 1930s, to culture filtrates absorbed to aluminum hydroxide in 1970, and likely to recombinant protective antigen in the near future. Each of these refinements has increased safety without significant loss of efficacy. The threat of genetically engineered, antibiotic and vaccine resistant strains of Bacillus anthracis is fueling hypothesis-driven research and global techniques--including genomics, proteomics and transposon site hybridization--to facilitate the discovery of novel vaccine targets. This review highlights historical achievements and new developments in anthrax vaccine research.

Appropriation and commercialization of the Pasteur anthrax vaccine

Whereas Pasteur patented the biotechnological processes that he invented between 1857 and 1873 in the agro-food domain, he did not file any patents on the artificial vaccine preparation processes that he subsequently developed. This absence of patents can probably be explained by the 1844 patent law in France that established the non-patentable status of pharmaceutical preparations and remedies, including those for use in veterinary medicine. Despite the absence of patents, the commercial exploitation of the anthrax vaccine in the 1880s and 1890s led to a technical and commercial monopoly by Pasteur's laboratory as well as the founding of a commercial company to diffuse the vaccine abroad. Pasteur repeatedly refused to transfer his know-how and anthrax vaccine production methods to foreign laboratories, on the grounds that he wished to control the quality of the vaccines produced. Indeed, it was relatively difficult to transfer a method that was not yet perfectly stabilized in the early 1880s. Pasteur also wanted to maintain the monopoly of his commercial company and to increase the profits from vaccine sales so that the Institut Pasteur could be financially independent. The 'Pasteur anthrax vaccine' operating licences are described and analysed in detail in this article.

The history of anthrax

Anthrax, a potentially fatal infection, is a virulent and highly contagious disease. Descriptions of this disease begin in antiquity, with the best ancient account being by the Roman poet Virgil. During the 19th century, anthrax was the infection involved in several important medical developments. It served as the prototype for Koch's postulates regarding the causation of infectious disease. The first vaccine containing attenuated live organisms was Louis Pasteur's veterinary anthrax vaccine. In the 1900s, human inhalation anthrax occurred sporadically in the United States among textile and tanning workers, but the incidence of the illness had declined dramatically. An outbreak of inhalation anthrax occurred in Sverdlovsk near a Soviet military microbiology facility in 1979. This epidemic represented the largest documented outbreak of human inhalation anthrax in history. In October and November 2001, 22 cases of confirmed or suspected inhalation and cutaneous anthrax were reported associated with the intentional release of the organism in the United States. An additional case of cutaneous disease occurred in March of 2002.

Vaccines for adults in an age of terrorism

Vaccines are an effective, safe, and relatively inexpensive means of preventing infection; thus, they are important tools for fighting biological terrorism. Two diseases, anthrax and smallpox, for which vaccines are not available to the general public are discussed. Three other vaccines--tetanus toxoid, influenza vaccine, and hepatitis B vaccine--generally recommended for adults, may be in short supply as a result of recent acts of terrorism.

Louis Pasteur's beer of revenge

Although by the mid-nineteenth century evidence existed for an association between micoorganisms and disease, it was the combined efforts of Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch that created the germ theory of disease--the theory that specific microbes cause specific diseases. Surprisingly, the relationship between the two founders of microbiology and immunology was far from friendly.