when did measles vaccine come out

The measles vaccine was first introduced in 1963. It was developed by John Enders and his colleagues who transformed the Edmonston-B strain of the measles virus into a vaccine and licensed it in the United States that year. An improved and even weaker version of the vaccine was developed by Maurice Hilleman and colleagues in 1968, and this version has been the primary measles vaccine used in the U.S. since then. The measles vaccine is often combined with mumps and rubella vaccines in the MMR vaccine. Before the vaccine was available, measles caused millions of infections and hundreds of deaths annually in the U.S. alone.