Which company recalled its polio vaccine after the 1955 Cutter incident?

Cutter Laboratories recalled its polio vaccine after the 1955 Cutter incident, when some vaccine lots contained live poliovirus.

The vaccine was made using Jonas Salk’s inactivated-poliovirus method. Most batches were safe, but a manufacturing failure allowed incompletely inactivated virus into several lots produced by Cutter Laboratories in California. Children who received affected doses developed paralytic polio, and some infections spread to family members.

The incident led to the recall of Cutter’s vaccine and tighter federal oversight of vaccine production. It also prompted changes in testing, inspection, and manufacturing controls for biological products.

The Cutter incident is not the same as the later debate over oral polio vaccine, which uses weakened live virus. Cutter’s problem involved a vaccine intended to contain killed, or inactivated, virus.