The Early Years

To manufacture diphtheria antitoxin, horses were innoculated with the toxin produced by the bacillus Corynebacterium diphtheriae, the causative agent of diphtheria.

In response to this antigen, the animal's immune system generated specific antibodies, or antitoxin, to fight the infection. By bleeding the horse and processing the blood, the antibody-containing serum was available for the prevention and treatment of the disease in humans.

The laboratory's first director, Herbert D. Pease, M.D., started the process by personally immunizing 15 horses with diphtheria toxin in October, 1901. In February, 1902, the first shipment of diphtheria antitoxin was sent to the Willard State Psychiatric Hospital, where the disease had been present for years. Four months later, the first tetanus antitoxin was made available to physicians.

The Early Years...

• Introduction
• Antitoxin Laboratory - Yates Street, Albany, New York
• Manufacturing of the diphtheria antitoxin
• Examining the products for sterility and potency
• Production pipeline ended in the laboratory's shipping room
• Single site for all laboratory activities
• Recruiting personnel to staff the expanded laboratory
• New York City's Quarantine Station
• Wish for a farm was granted in May, 1913
• Media production facility
• Dr. Augustus B. Wadsworth and staff