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Biologics Regulation and ResearchThe People and Work of Buildings 29 & 29A

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Paul D. Parkman, M.D.
(1932-still living)

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Dr. Paul D. Parkman was one of the inventors of the rubella vaccine.

Paul Parkman grew up in upstate New York. He attended Saint Lawrence University and State University of New York College of Medicine at Syracuse where he graduated first in his medical school class.

He then interned at Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown, NY and completed residency at Upstate Medical Center.

Dr. Parkman entered the “doctors draft” in 1960 and was assigned as a Captain in the Army Medical Corps at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. He and his colleagues isolated the Rubella virus from infected soldiers at Fort Dix, New Jersey.

He joined the NIH in 1963, working in the Laboratory of Viral Immunology in the Division of Biologics Standards (DBS). Dr. Parkman became Chief of the Section on General Virology in 1971.

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FDA History Office

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He joined the NIH in 1963, working in the Laboratory of Viral Immunology in the Division of Biologics Standards (DBS). Dr. Parkman became Chief of the Section on General Virology in 1971.

Dr. Parkman went on to develop the first Rubella vaccine with Dr. Harry M. Meyer, Jr. at NIH; their vaccine started clinical trials in 1965 at the Arkansas Children’s Colony and was licensed commercially in 1969.

He was part of the team that received a patent in 1971 for the rubella immunity test. The Laboratory of Viral Immunology was, at the time, in Building 29A on the second floor.

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National Library of Medicine

After the administrative transition of the DBS from the NIH to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1972, Dr. Parkman stayed on. He became the Deputy Director of what was then called the FDA Bureau of Biologics in 1973, a position he held until 1982, moving to the first floor of Building 29. In the 1980s, biologics underwent a series of organizational and name changes at the FDA. From 1982 to 1984 he was the Scientific Director of the FDA National Center for Drugs and Biologics, and from 1984 to 1987, Dr. Parkman was the Deputy Director at the FDA Center for Drugs and Biologics. In 1987, Dr. Parkman became Director of the FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), the name by which biologics went by from then to the present, and he served in this role until retirement in 1990. 

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Dr. Parkman was the recipient of numerous awards including the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation’s International Award for Distinguished Scientific Research in 1971, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Meritorious Executive Rank Award in 1980, and an honorary Doctorate of Science degree from his alma mater, the State University of New York in 1990.

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