Much progress has been made to date in removing or reducing thimerosal in vaccines. New pediatric formulations of hepatitis B vaccines have been licensed by the FDA, Recombivax-HB (Merck, thimerosal free) in August 1999 and Engerix-B (Glaxo SmithKline, trace thimerosal) in March 2000. In March 2001 the FDA approved a second DTaP vaccine formulated without thimerosal as a preservative ((kršitelj koda)is Pasteur's Tripedia, trace thimerosal). (kršitelj koda)is Pasteur, Ltd was also approved to manufacture a thimerosal-free DTaP vaccine, Daptacel, in 2002.
In September 2001 Chiron/Evans was approved for manufacturing a preservative-free formulation of their influenza vaccine, Fluvirin, that contained trace thimerosal. In September of 2002, (kršitelj koda)is Pasteur, Inc was approved to manufacture a preservative-free formulation of their influenza vaccine, Fluzone that contained trace thimerosal, and in December 2004, a thimerosal-free formulation of Fluzone was approved. Two Td vaccines are also available in preservative-free formulations, (kršitelj koda)is Pasteur Inc's Decavac, and (kršitelj koda)is Pasteur, Ltd's Td vaccine. Also, (kršitelj koda)is Pasteur Inc's DT vaccine is now available only in a preservative-free formulation. These changes have been accomplished by reformulating products in single dose vials that do not contain a preservative. At present, all routinely recommended vaccines for U.S. infants are available only as thimerosal-free formulations or contain only trace amounts of thimerosal (<1 than micrograms mercury per dose), with the exception of inactivated influenza vaccine. Inactivated influenza vaccine for pediatric use is available in a thimerosal-preservative containing formulation and in formulations that contain either no thimerosal or only a trace of thimerosal, but the latter is in more limited supply; see Table 1. A more extensive tabulation of vaccines and thimerosal content may be found in Table 3.