A Brief History of Leprosy Vaccine Research

1921 – Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccine produced by two French scientists, Albert Calmette and Camille Guerin
1928 – BCG vaccine adopted by the Health Committee of the League of Nations
1979 - Human trials with ICRC Anti-leprosy Vaccine began in Mumbai, India
1980 – ICRC (cultivable leprosy derived mycobacteria belonging to M. avium intracellulare complex) Vaccine developed
February 1998 – Leprosy vaccine developed and approved at the National Institute of Immunology in New Delhi, the first to stimulate the immune system to kill M.leprae. The vaccine is prepared from a killed non-pathogenic strain of Mycobacterium, first isolated in the mid-1970s from the sputum of a patient with tuberculosis.

First commercial batch released in June 1998 and sold in India at six rupees a dose

October 2003 – Identification of M. leprae antigens
May 2005 – Completed screening of the leprosy bacillus for proteins strongly recognized by the human immune system
March 2006 – Identified two specific antigens (MLO405 and ML2331) which, combined with the existing PGL-1 antibody test, give a significantly greater sensitivity to the test. These antigens can also potentially form the basis of a specific vaccine against leprosy.

A Vaccine for Leprosy