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Researchers Pivot After US Aid Cuts Stall HIV Vaccine
17 Jan
Summary
- A $45 million USAID grant for an African HIV vaccine was frozen due to an executive order.
- Researchers are now seeking alternative funding for the stalled HIV vaccine trials.
- The vaccine targets rare, powerful antibodies to fight HIV's evasiveness.
A promising initiative to develop an HIV vaccine across Africa, funded by a $45 million USAID grant, faced a critical setback in early 2025. The BRILLIANT Consortium, comprising African scientists, had planned to launch trials but were halted by a U.S. executive order freezing foreign aid. This disruption significantly impacted the project, forcing researchers to scramble for alternative funding sources and scale back their ambitious plans.
Despite the devastating funding cut, the team is demonstrating resilience. Penny Moore highlighted the virus's evasive nature, characterized by sugar shields and rapid mutation, underscoring the urgent need for a vaccine. The research, bolstered by decades of work and contributions from South African women, has yielded crucial insights into broadly neutralizing antibodies, which the new vaccine aims to stimulate.
Now operating on a significantly reduced budget, approximately one-twentieth of the original grant, and without U.S. government funding, the project has secured support from the South African Medical Research Council and the Gates Foundation. Screening for the scaled-down trials has commenced on the outskirts of Cape Town, with participants from affected communities playing a vital role.
