MMR library
Vaccine development and testing
What information was there about the safety of the MMR vaccine before it was introduced in the UK in 1988?
MMR vaccines were carefully tested before being introduced in the UK, and we were by no means the first country to use the MMR vaccine to protect children against measles, mumps and rubella. These tests followed the routine procedures for the testing and licensing of all new medicines and vaccines at that time. This has been confirmed recently by the CSM.
A combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine was first licensed in the USA in 1971 and in the UK in 1972. MMR was rigorously tested in six separate clinical trials involving 1184 children.
By the time the combined MMR vaccines were introduced in the UK in 1988 they had already been extensively used worldwide - in the USA since the early 1970s, and in Sweden and Finland since 1982.
This practical experience of giving tens of millions of doses of MMR vaccine showed that it was both highly effective and very safe before it was introduced in the UK.
- Introduction
- Was MMR properly tested?
- What information was there about the safety of the MMR vaccine before it was introduced in the UK in 1988?
- How does the vaccine work?
- How effective is the vaccine?
- How long does a child remain immune after receiving the vaccine?
- Isn't the protection from measles itself better than that from the vaccine?
- Why do people who have been immunised still suffer from measles, mumps and rubella?