The chickenpox (varicella) vaccine was first licensed and became commercially available in 1995 in the United States, under the brand name Varivax.

Quick Scoop

  • A live attenuated varicella vaccine based on the Oka strain was developed in Japan in the early 1970s, but it was not widely used globally at that time.
  • The chickenpox vaccine first became commercially available in 1984 in limited settings, then was licensed in the U.S. as Varivax in 1995, which is usually the date people mean when they ask “when did the chickenpox vaccine come out.”
  • In 1996, U.S. health authorities began recommending routine chickenpox vaccination for children, which rapidly reduced cases and complications from the disease.

A tiny timeline story

  • 1970s – Researchers in Japan create an experimental chickenpox vaccine using the Oka strain, showing that a weakened live virus could safely protect against disease.
  • 1980s – Further development and trials continue in Japan, the U.S., and Europe, gradually building confidence that a chickenpox vaccine could work at scale.
  • 1995 – Varivax, the first widely used chickenpox vaccine in the U.S., is licensed and released; many countries later follow with their own national programs.

In everyday conversation, when people ask “when did the chickenpox vaccine come out?” the practical answer is 1995, because that’s when it was officially licensed and rolled out as a standard childhood vaccine in the U.S.

TL;DR: The key year most sources and doctors point to is 1995 , when Varivax was licensed in the U.S. and the chickenpox vaccine truly “came out” for routine use.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.