Smith, co-inventor of Hib vaccine, dies

Smith

Former chief of pediatrics David Smith, who co-invented a vaccine that has saved the lives of thousands of children, died February 23. He was 67.

Smith helped invent a vaccine that has almost eradicated childhood bacterial meningitis in America, Australia, and several European countries. He and co-inventor Porter Anderson worked on the vaccine while both were at the University. Smith spun off a local company, Praxis Biologics, to continue work on the vaccine in the former St. Agnes High School on East River Road. After the vaccine went on the market, cases of Haemophilus influenza type b infection plummeted--from 20,000 in 1987 to 81 in 1997, according to federal statistics.

"The impact on a major childhood disease has been astounding," stated Peter Paradiso, who worked with Smith at Praxis. The technology used in the vaccine now is being used to develop vaccines against other types of bacteria, he said. "Hib" is a bacteria that can cause childhood meningitis, paralysis, blindness, deafness, mental retardation, and death.

Another colleague described Smith, who died of a form of skin cancer, as a visionary who always found a way around obstacles. "He formed his own company because no drug companies would manufacture the vaccine," said Richard Insel, director of Strong Children's Research Center. "He mortgaged his own house to start it."

"David made our world a safer place for our children and for generations of children to come," added Jay Stein, Medical Center and Strong Health CEO.

Smith graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1953. He received his medical degree from Rochester in 1958 and went on to train at Children's Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School. From the late 1960s to 1976 he was chief of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital in Boston, and from 1976 to 1983 chaired pediatrics at Rochester. He left in 1983 to found Praxis.

Smith's honors were many. In 1996 he and Anderson received the Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award for their work on the Hib vaccine. The award is one of the most prestigious in the country. The same year he received the Pasteur Award from the World Health Organization.

Smith is survived by his wife, Joan, of New York and Rochester; three daughters, Andrea and Rachel of New York City, and Jennifer of Takoma Park, Md.; two stepdaughters, Jody Leader of Brookline, Mass., and Kristin Leader of Rome, Italy; a brother, Richard, of Delaware, Ohio; and five granddaughters.

Local friends and colleagues plan to hold a day honoring Smith in the spring.