On May 4, 2004, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), awarded a new license agreement for RotaShield, an oral rotavirus vaccine, created by NIAID scientists in the 1980s. The licensed was awarded to BIOVIRx, of Minneapolis, MN, which planned global commercialization of RotaShield.

Rotaviruses are consistently shown to be the leading cause of severe diarrhea in infants and young children. Worldwide, the wheel-shaped viruses are estimated to cause more than 135 million episodes of diarrhea each year in infants and children younger than 5 years old, resulting in up to 592,000 deaths annually.