Rotavirus Vaccine
Offit worked for 25 years on the development of a safe and effective vaccine against rotavirus, which is a cause of gastroenteritis, and which kills as many as 600,000 children a year worldwide, about half as many as malaria kills; most deaths are outside the West. His interest in the disease stemmed from the death of a 9-month-old infant from rotavirus-caused dehydration while under his care as a pediatric resident in 1979.
Along with his colleagues Fred Clark and Stanley Plotkin, Offit invented RotaTeq, a pentavalent rotavirus vaccine which is currently manufactured by Merck & Co. RotaTeq is one of two vaccines currently used against rotavirus, which replaced an earlier vaccine withdrawn after being blamed, perhaps incorrectly, for very rare cases of intussusception.
In February 2006, RotaTeq was approved for inclusion in the recommended US vaccination schedule, following its approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Premarketing studies found that RotaTeq was effective and safe, with an incidence of adverse events comparable to placebo and no evidence of association with intussusception. RotaTeq is credited with saving hundreds of lives a day. Offit received an unspecified sum of money for his interest in RotaTeq.
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