Let's play Spot The Difference between the polio vax and today. Spoiler: 7 years to develop and no patent so it could go worldwide
In 1947, Salk accepted a professorship at the
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where he undertook a project beginning in 1948 to determine the number of different types of
poliovirus. For the next seven years, Salk devoted himself to developing a vaccine against
polio.
Salk was immediately hailed as a "miracle worker" when the vaccine's success was first made public in April 1955, and chose to not patent the vaccine or seek any profit from it in order to maximize its global distribution.
[2] The
National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis and the University of Pittsburgh looked into patenting the vaccine, but since Salk's techniques were not novel, their
patent attorney said, "If there were any patentable novelty to be found in this phase it would lie within an extremely narrow scope and would be of doubtful value."
[3][4] An immediate rush to vaccinate began in the United States and around the world. Many countries began polio immunization campaigns using Salk's vaccine, including Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, West Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Belgium. By 1959, the Salk vaccine had reached about 90 countries.
[5] An attenuated live
oral polio vaccine was developed by
Albert Sabin, coming into commercial use in 1961. Less than 25 years after the release of Salk's vaccine, domestic transmission of polio had been eliminated in the United States.