The Trump administration has abruptly pretended a $ 258 million research program focused on developing an HIV vaccine.
Scientists say this decision could undo decades of progress in the fight against virus.
Officials of the HIV Division of the National Health Institutes (NIF) reported the program leaders at Duke University and the Scripps Research Institute on Friday.
The two institutions were working with multiple research partners. His research also contributed to treatments for COVID-19, autoimmune diseases and even snake antivenne.
“The consortiums for the development and immunology of the HIV/AIDS vaccine were reviewed by NIH's leadership, which does not support it in the future.
“Nih hopes to change your approach to the use of approaches currently available to eliminate HIV/AIDS,” said a NiH senior official who requested anonymity.
This termination is part of a broader series of cuts to HIV -related efforts, especially prevention programs.
Separately, the NIH arrested financing for a clinical trial of an HIV vaccine developed by modern.
“It seems very disappointing that, at this critical situation, the financing for vaccine research programs against the HIV vaccine of great success must be extracted,” said Dennis Burton, an immunologist who directed the scripps team.
Public health experts warn that the measure could have serious consequences.
This week, the Administration also held funds for state and territorial HIV prevention efforts.
In Texas, the State Health Services Department told the beneficiaries that “pause all activities until it is notified.”
In Misklenberg County, North Carolina, the local health department has already fired 10 staff members.
In all of Africa, countries report the main setbacks in the control of the epidemic.
“It is simply inconceivable how myopic is this,” said Mitchell Warren, Executive Director of the Avac Prevention Group.
New HIV infections have decreased since 2010.
Even so, in 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported 1.3 million new cases, including 120,000 children.
“HIV pandemic will never end without a vaccine, so killing research on a will end up killing people.
“The investment of several years of NIH in advanced vaccine technologies should not be abandoned by whim as this,” said John Moore, HIV researcher at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.
In his first term, President Trump supported the efforts to end the HIV epidemic in the United States
But its second administration has cut funds for those same initiatives.
The NIH finished several subsidies related to the preparation, a regime of preventive medicines that effectively stops HIV infection.
The administration also closed the HIV prevention division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
That division had provided funds to states and territories to prevent and respond to outbreaks.
Some responsibilities may change to a new agency, the administration of a healthy America, but no details have been shared.
The Department of Health and Human Services has not responded to requests for comments.
In January, the Administration also arrested the funds for the president's emergency plan for AIDS relief (Pepfar).
Pepfar is a $ 7.5 billion program that supplies most HIV treatment in Africa and other developing regions.
Although the State Department then allowed the treatment to resume through exemptions, prevention funds were not restored.
Previous vaccines trials have failed, which makes some question if possible a traditional HIV vaccine.
Duke and Scripps teams were exploring a new path, focusing on widely neutralizing antibodies.
These antibodies have proven promising in animal studies, providing protection against multiple HIV strains.
The program had been financed through seven -year awards granted in 2019.
Ongoing clinical trials can continue if there is funds for the HIV vaccine test network.
But without this fundamental investigation, no new vaccine candidate will enter judgments in the coming years.
“Almost everything in the field is articulated in the work that these two programs are doing.
“The pipe just obstructs,” Warren said.
(New York Times)
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