Pioneering Polio Vaccine Developer Hilary Koprowski passes away

April 17, 2013

Dr. Hilary Koprowski (96), the Polish-born virologist who developed the first successful oral vaccination for polio.
Albeit not as famous as his companion researchers Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin, Koprowski’s 1950 clinical trial was the first to demonstrate it was feasible to vaccinate against polio, the crippling and sometimes fatal disease that’s now all but wiped out. Hilary Koprowski self-administered the live-virus oral vaccine he developed before the 1950 trial – almost two years before Salk’s injectable version.