Introduction:

in the history of medicine, vaccination is one of the most important operations in the reduction of infant mortality and the eradication of diseases. However, with the apogee of the so-called “anti-vaccine” groups has increased the incidence of infectious diseases, including measles, whose eradication is not possible by the year 2015, as the World Health Organization had proposed.

Objective:

we have studied different vaccines existing in the Spanish market available to health professionals and we have analyzed the formulations of existing measles vaccines.

Method:

the data sheets of different vaccines available to health professionals collected at the Spanish Agency of Medicines and Health Products has been studied.

Results:

the results have been obtained from different aspects: type of vaccine, physicochemical system, pharmaceutical form, way of administration or device for its administration. In addition, we have analyzed formulations of existing measles vaccines, by emphasizing different excipients which contain: stabilizers, antibiotics, culture media, etc.

Conclusions:

the majority of vaccines marketed in Spain are suspensions, to be administered by an intramuscular or subcutaneous injection, with a pre-filled syringe. In the case of the measles vaccine, we found three drugs of extemporaneous preparation that are presented as lyophilized powder in vial and vehicle in a pre-filled syringe. They are produced from different live or attenuated viruses so they are combined vaccines.

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