“Japan-Made Smallpox Vaccine Revived in U.S.”

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VaxGen has purchased a 25-year-old Japanese-made smallpox vaccine in the hopes of reviving the product to protect against smallpox in the event of a bioterrorism attack. The firm will begin clinical testing of the vaccine, which is called LC16 and was developed in the 1970s. Tests showed that patients who received the LC16 vaccine produced enough antibodies to protect them from smallpox, but the vaccine caused fewer side effects than other smallpox shots. Japan approved the vaccine in 1975 and 100,000 children were vaccinated with it; however, the vaccine was put into cold storage a year later, after the ministry ended compulsory smallpox vaccination because the disease had been eradicated.

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