Before 2000, pediatric pneumonia claimed the lives of up to 1 million children worldwide each year. Thanks to Dace Viceps Madore and a group of equally dedicated scientists, those days are gone.
Madore was part of the team at Praxis Biologics that developed Prevnar, the first childhood vaccine to target Streptococcus, a bacteria that caused pneumonia, meningitis and countless inner ear infections. Introduced in 2000, millions of doses of Prevnar have been administered to children across the globe, dramatically reducing the number of deaths from pediatric pneumonia.
“It’s truly a success story,” Madore told Chemical and Engineering News in 2007. “The vaccine has been effective not only in preventing Streptococcus pneumoniae disease in the target population, infants, but has also reduced the incidence of invasive disease in unvaccinated adults.’’
Prevnar had additional impacts: Its development became a model for research and development of additional childhood vaccines.
In 2003, Madore was part of a group of scientists to receive the “Heroes of Chemistry’’ award from the American Chemical Society. Born in the former West Germany, Madore came to the U.S. as a toddler. She earned a doctorate in biology from Temple University.
By Robert Warren
