US Government Cuts Funding For HIV Vaccine. Experts Warn Delaying Progress By A Decade
HIV Vaccine Program Shut Down Without Clear Replacement
On May 30, researchers at Duke University and the Scripps Research Institute were informed that their $258 million HIV vaccine development program was being shut down. The news came from officials at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), as reported by The New York Times and CBS News.
This decision affects the Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Development (CHAVD), a major effort that scientists say was showing promising results after years of incremental progress. Now, with the program abruptly defunded and no solid plan in place to replace it, researchers fear that global efforts to develop an HIV vaccine could be delayed by up to ten years.
The NIH claims it no longer supports CHAVD’s direction and wants to pivot toward using current tools to reduce HIV rates. However, critics argue that abandoning vaccine development at this stage is not only short-sighted but dangerous.
Dennis Burton, an immunology professor at Scripps and part of the research team, told CBS News, “We’re beginning to get close. We’re getting good results out of clinical trials. This is a terrible time to cut it off.”
John Moore, an HIV researcher at Weill Cornell Medicine, echoed the concern in an interview with The Times, saying, “The HIV pandemic will never be ended without a vaccine, so killing research on one will end up killing people.”
Earlier this year, the administration issued an executive order to freeze foreign aid, effectively pausing programs under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). While there’s been some walk-back, PrEP access was restored for pregnant and breastfeeding women in low-income countries, key populations, including LGBTQIA+ people, remain excluded.
In March, the NIH also terminated several grants tied to PrEP research, and there are rumours that the CDC’s HIV prevention division could be on the chopping block, too.
We have to ask how you can expect to reduce HIV transmissions while removing the very tools designed to do that?
What Happens to Clinical Trials and Existing Research?
Though some clinical trials may continue under the NIH’s HIV Vaccine Trial Network, the loss of CHAVD means fewer new vaccine candidates are likely to be developed. Moderna, which had been running its own HIV vaccine trial with NIH support, also confirmed a funding pause.
Mitchell Warren, executive director of HIV prevention group AVAC, told CBS News that even if trials proceed, they’re at risk without the foundational work coming out of Duke and Scripps. The science pipeline doesn’t run on autopilot, it depends on active research, development, and funding.
HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard claims that HIV/AIDS programs will continue under a proposed agency called the “Administration for a Healthy America,” led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. But details are vague, and there’s no timeline for when or how this new body will function.
Dennis Burton warned the damage may already be done: “This is a setback of probably a decade for HIV vaccine research,” he said.
California State Senator Scott Wiener summed up the concern bluntly on Bluesky: “As they take a wrecking ball to HIV treatment and prevention, they’re now ending the work to create an HIV vaccine. They don’t care if people die.”
It’s hard to avoid the feeling that this is more than just budget reshuffling. Decisions like these made quietly and without public explanation have very real consequences.
A vaccine remains one of the only viable paths to truly ending HIV.
