Hon
Editor's not: la these davs of mass
production many people have won
dered why it hasn't been possible to
torn out enough polio vaccine to take
care of everybody risht awav. To get
tbe answer, the United Press sent its
polio reporter on a tour of the big
Eli Lilly plant.
Br .MICHAEL O'NEILL
United Press Correspondent
Indianapolis flJ.R) Why isn't
there enough polio vaccine for
everyone? Very simple. It is
incredibly difficult to make.
Only six American drug firms
attempted it. Only one, the big
Eli Lilly Co. here, has got into
mass production.
From the collecting of mon
keys in far away India to the
filling of the small glass vials
that are shipped to your doctor
or clinic, the manufacture of
Salk vaccine is a bewilderingly
complicated process.
The experts say it is the-most
difficult biological product man
has ever tried to make. And if
you have any doubts, come along
on a guided tour of the Lilly
plant.
Monkeys From India
In the crisp early morning air,
a plane settles down on the air
port just outside of Indianapolis
with 1,600 Rhesus monkeys gath
ered only four days earlier in
India. Heated trucks speed them
to steam cleaned cages in Lilly's
building 50. One by one, they
are taken into a small glass-walled
room and anesthetized. A
white-robed technician removes
the kidneys; another removes the
other vital organs to check for
possible disease.
Monkey Cells Vital
The healthy kidneys, one of
the raw materials of all Salk
vaccine, then are taken into an
other germ-free room where
girls mince them with ordinary
barbers' shears. After this they
are placed in Poblitsky flasks,
large squarish bottles, along
with a nourishing fluid known
as medium 199. For six days,
mechanized racks rock the flasks
to and fro in a large incubating
room and the tiny kidney cells
mysteriously multiply.
These monkey cells are vital.
They are the only material in
which polio viruses , have been
grown successfully in mass pro
duction. When the kidney cells have
grown for six days, the flasks
are "seeded" with live polio
virus, types I, II and III in differ
ent flasks. For four more days,
the flasks are rocked gently and
the viruses multiply to a thou
sand times their original quan
tity. Now the fluid is filtered three
times to remove kidney cell frag
ments, bacteria, and indeed
everything but the polio virus
itself. And the first of a seem
ingly interminable series of tests
is performed, to determine the
strength of the virus fluid and
to make sure it isn't contaminat
ed with monkey viruses, bacter
ia, molds, or tuberculosis germs.
Inactivation Process
Then begins the crucial "inac
tivation" process in which the
live polio viruses are "killed"
by heat and formaldehyde so
that the final product cannot
infect a child.
The virus fluid, now assembled
in 100-gallon strainless steel
tanks, is pumped through a
heater and the formaldehyde
injected simultaneously under
pressure. The virus and the for
maldehyde are kept together for
13 days in a heated room. Each
day the tanks are shaken by
hand three times and the fluid
is completely filtered once to
make sure the formaldehyde
reaches every virus particle.
Every 15 hours for the first
45 hours, samples of the virus
fluid are taken and added to
live monkey kidney cells. By
measuring the damage done to
the cells, the Lilly technicians
can determine the rate at which
the virus is being killed. Then,
three days before the end of the
inactivation period, and again at
the end, more tests are done to
confirm that the virus has been
fully inactivated.
As soon as the fluid is inacti
vated, it is moved to Lilly's plant
more than a mile away. This is
to guard against live viruses in
the first plant accidentally get
ting , into the inactivated prod
uct. In this huge building, the pools
of type I, II, and III vaccine are
mixed together in huge tanks to
form the three-strain vaccine
called for in the Salk formula.'
More long tests.
Final Safety Tests
Samples are tested for the ab
sence of bacteria. Monkeys are
vaccinated and their blood
tested to make sure the vaccine
is potent enough, that it will
prevent polio paralysis. The vac
cine's safety is tested again both
in monkeys and in monkey kid
ney tissue cultures.
When it has passed these con
siderable hurdles, it moves into
the filling rooms. Here, the air is
triple-filtered and kept under
pressure to keep out germs. Girls
in sterile white gowns reach into
stainless steel filling hoods to
fill the small vials by hand. They
watch what they are doing
through small windows in the
hood.
The vials move monotonously
out of the room on a conveyor
belt and are stored while more
tests are run. This time samples
of the finished products are in
jected into monkeys, which have
f taking Saik Vaccine R
o
; been made extra sensitive with
! cortisone, to provide one final
All in all, it has taken 20 days
to make the vaccine and at least
100 days to test it.
Lilly's production line is boom
guarantee that the vaccine is
safe.
' D,AM EVENT
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mr J sXl """1 r"a J . ffig why you can get these nation- I fpv
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I
ij i jn,w-. . pwif.iMiw u i iijiiiimiiPiiiwi.iiiL i i i UiiiiiniiJiutmi mum uw ram m
ing. This one firm alone has pro
duced nearly 70 per cent of all
the vaccine released so far. It
plans to turn out a record 60,-
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eason for
000,000 shots in the first six
months of 1956.
One reason for this is that Lil
ly has put its vaccine production
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IF YOU CANNOT SHOP
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O R D E R B Y M A I L
STREET MEDFORD, OREGON
Thursday, April 3, 1958
Lack of Sufficient Su
on a seven-day, nine-hour-a-day
basis and has transferred key
technicians and scientists from
other departments. Frank E.
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w
w
1
1
D
I
B
I
I
MEDFORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE FIVE
Kamplain, the man in immediate
charge of production, put it this
way:
"Our workers have been mak
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WEISFIELD'S JEWELERS
Pleas send me the "Rings O' Fortune" named:
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enclosing $ and will send $ per
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Name Phone
Address..... ...How Long
City Zone... State
Where Employed.. How Long
Credit Reference.
Firm Nam
E3 Ea es ea
ing a lot of sacrifices. When we
were asked to boost production
we put it squarely up to them
and they responded 100 per cent.
S
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