Components of Vaccines

Vaccines are made with a variety of ingredients including antigens, stabilizers, adjuvants, and preservatives; they may also contain residual by-products from the production process.  Knowing precisely what is in each vaccine can be helpful when investigating adverse events following vaccination and for choosing alternative products for persons who have allergies or have had an adverse event known or suspected to be related to a vaccine component.  The following tables were prepared using information from the Physician's Desk Reference (PDR), the manufacturers’ package inserts and ImmunoFacts by JD Grabenstein. Since package inserts can change and there are sometimes small modifications in the components, the most recent package inserts (links available in the tables) should be reviewed to verify specific information.  Below are links to tables organized by Excipients, Allergens, and Vaccine Type. Excipients Table   Allergens Table       Components Tables click on the vaccine type below to link to the table of vaccine-specific components Vaccine Type Brand Name DT DT DTaP Daptacel, Kinrix, Tripedia, Infanrix DTaP and Hib TriHIBit DTaP, Hepatitis B and IPV Pediarix DTaP, IPV, Hib Pentacel Hepatitis A Havrix, Vaqta Hepatitis B Engerix-B, Recombivax HB Hepatitis A and B Twinrix Hib Hiberix, HibTITER, PedvaxHIB, ActHIB, OmniHIB Hib and Hepatitis B Comvax HPV Cervarix, Gardasil Influenza Afluria, Agriflu, Fluarix, FluLaval, Flumist, Fluvirin, Fluzone Japanese Encephalitis Ixiaro, JE-VAX Meningococcal Menactra, Menomune, Menveo MMR MMR II MMRV ProQuad Pneumococcal Pneumovax 23, Prevnar, Prevnar 13 Polio IPOL Rabies Imovax Rabies, RabAvert Rotavirus Rotarix, RotaTeq Smallpox Dryvax Td Decavac, Td Typhoid Typhim Vi, Vivotif Tdap Adacel, Boostrix Varicella (Chickenpox) Varivax

This page was last updated on Jan 28 2013 © 2013 Institute for Vaccine Safety