On Aug. 26, 1998, the Children’s Vaccine Program was established at WHO’s Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) with a $125 million gift from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The program’s goal was to provide vaccines to children in the developing world and to accelerate research and development of new vaccines. The first vaccines purchased were Hib, hepatitis B, rotavirus, and pneumococcal, which were not commonly used in the developing world.