The Trump administration ends several studies on HIV vaccine, say scientists and managers
The Trump administration has decided to end the financing of a large band of research on the HIV vaccine, saying that current approaches are sufficient to counter the virus, according to several scientists and federal health officials.
This story initially ran CBS News.
He may not be republished.
The notifications according to which the financing was not extended was relayed on May 30 to the researchers, who were informed by National Health Institutes officials that the Department of Health and Social Services had elected “to go with approaches currently available to eliminate HIV instead”.
The cuts will close two main research efforts on the HIV vaccine funded by the NIH In 2012 Duke Human Vaccine Institute and the Scripps Research Institute said scientists. A modern spokesperson said the manufacturer of the vaccine Clinical trials Thanks to the network of tests on the HIV vaccine of NIH, the network was also paused.
A senior NIH official said that the HHS asked the agency to no longer issue funding during the next financial year for the HIV vaccine, a handful of exceptions.
A change of budgetary rule specifically intended for research on HIV vaccines should also lead to another price reduction in NIH for studies launched by scientists, said a official.
The change, to be finalized shortly, inflates the accounting of the initial cost of studies on HIV vaccines funded by the agency. Instead of the cost of a five -year subsidy spread over five years, the NIH plans to win the HIV vaccine of multi -year subsidies that all count for a single year, said the manager, which makes them more difficult to be funded.
HHS spokesperson told CBS News that “complex and double health programs have led to a serious duplication of efforts”, saying that “27 separate programs that approach HIV / AIDS” had spent $ 7.5 billion.
“The administration believes that the United States should have the best medical research in the world.
Hilliard said that “HIV / AIDS critical programs would continue” under the new agency that the Secretary of Health and Social Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., proposed to create, nicknamed the administration for a healthy America.
“For the design and development of the HIV vaccine, we started to see the light at the end of the tunnel after many years of research. It's a terrible moment to cut it. We are starting to get closer. We obtain good results from clinical trials, ”said Dennis BurtonProfessor of immunology at Scripps Research.
Burton warned that the research on the HIV vaccine of his institution could not simply be reinforced, even if a future administration decided to change the courses on the financing of HIV. He said that the ongoing experiences would be closed and that the researchers met to study the problem would be forced to refocus their career on other subjects.
“This is a decision with consequences that will linger. This is a decade of a decade probably for research on HIV vaccines,” said Burton.
Cancellation of funds has weeks before the FDA June 19 To decide on the approval of the Lenacapavir, an injectable drug twice a year to prevent HIV.
The drug, which is brought to the commercial market by the Drugs Gilead Sciences, relies on Research supported by NIH in previous HIV drugs. The availability of the drug could lead to a significant drop in HIV cases in the world, because A study found It was 100% effective in preventing transmission.
An NIH official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, reprimanded the assertion that the effectiveness of current HIV prevention strategies meant that a vaccine was no longer necessary. “The only way to put an end to the HIV epidemic in the United States and helps pandemic worldwide,” is with a vaccine, said the manager.
The development of an effective HIV vaccine was an elusive target for researchers, although scientists have been the subject of a recent breakthrough in the field.
“HIV has established roadblocks to fight us, which are unprecedented in vaccinology. We had to learn what each of the roadblocks is and find ways to overcome it. This virus puts so quickly, “said Duke Barton Ford Haynes medical professor, who is part of Duke Human Vaccine Institute.
Haynes said that the work of his institute essentially combined different vaccines as part of a strategy to design an effective HIV vaccine.
He congratulated Lenacapavir as a “wonderful development for the field”, but said that there was still a need for a vaccine. Lenacapavir needs injections every six months to remain effective, a difficult proposal even before reductions in high reduction in HIV / AID HIV / AID Centers for Disease and prevention and foreign aid programs supported by HIV / AIDS.
“Hope was that the addition of a HIV vaccine to all the preventive measures that we have finally allowed us to put an end to the pandemic,” said Haynes.
