A major US research program to develop a vaccine against HIV has been abruptly canceled by the Trump administration, sparking outrage as prevention efforts stall.
The administration’s termination of the promising $258million research program stunned scientists, whose years-long project had also benefited the development of treatments for COVID-19, autoimmune conditions, and even snakebite antivenom.
Researchers at Duke University and the Scripps Research Institute were informed on Friday that their funding would be cut.
‘The consortia for HIV/AIDS vaccine development and immunology was reviewed by NIH leadership, which does not support it moving forward,’ a senior official, who asked not to be named, told the New York Times. ‘NIH expects to be shifting its focus toward using currently available approaches to eliminate HIV/AIDS.’
‘I find it very disappointing that at this critical juncture the funding for highly successful HIV vaccine research programs should be pulled,’ Dennis Burton, an immunologist who led the program at Scripps, told the New York Times.
More than 1.2million people in the US have HIV with the figure standing at around 110,000 in the UK.
‘Donald Trump cutting funding for the HIV vaccine is as mind blowing as it heart breaking’, said Richard Angell, chief executive of HIV charity the Terrence Higgins Trust. ‘The holy grail of any virus response and the only things that will eventually keep all Americans safe is a vaccine. A president worthy of the title would want America to be the first country to invent the HIV jab, not walk off the pitch in the eleventh hour.’
The Trump administration has abruptly shut down a $258 million HIV vaccine research program, halting work at Duke University and the Scripps Research Institute
The NIH said it would no longer support the consortia, shifting focus to existing tools for HIV prevention and treatment
For decades, the United States has led the world in HIV research, pouring billions into cutting-edge science that turned a once-fatal virus into a manageable condition for millions.
American labs were the first to crack the genetic code of HIV, to develop life-saving antiretroviral drugs, and to pioneer global initiatives like PEPFAR that saved more than 25 million lives worldwide.
The now-axed vaccine program was another shining example of US scientific leadership, bringing together top researchers from coast to coast and pushing the boundaries of immunology.
The cancellation is part of a broader rollback of federal HIV efforts. The NIH has also paused funding for a separate clinical trial of an HIV vaccine developed by Moderna.
HIV rates remain high. In 2023 alone the World Health Organization reported 1.3million new infections, including 120,000 children.
More than 32,000 people in the US contracted the virus last year and there was another 4,000 new cases in the UK.
In some parts of the US, the effects are already being felt. In Texas, the state’s Department of Health Services told grantees to pause HIV prevention activities ‘until further notice.’ In Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, 10 health department staffers have been laid off.
Across Africa, several countries are reporting major disruptions in prevention work after delays in US aid.
‘The HIV pandemic will never be ended without a vaccine, so killing research on one will end up killing people,’ John Moore, an HIV researcher at Weill Cornell Medical College, said. ‘The NIH’s multiyear investment in advanced vaccine technologies shouldn’t be abandoned on a whim like this.’
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Researchers had been pursuing a promising approach using broadly neutralizing antibodies that could protect against multiple HIV strains
Trial after trial has failed to produce a traditional HIV vaccine, but the Duke and Scripps teams had been taking a new approach: studying broadly neutralizing antibodies shown in animals to protect against multiple strains of the virus.
That promising pipeline may now run dry.
‘Almost everything in the field is hinged on work that those two programs are doing,’ said Warren. ‘The pipeline just got clogged.’
During his first term, President Trump had supported efforts to curb the HIV epidemic.
But in his second term, his administration has slashed prevention efforts, terminated several grants doe preventative drugs, and shut down the HIV prevention division at the CDC.
While officials say the work may be transferred to a yet-to-be-formed federal agency, no details have been shared.