The administration of United President Donald Trump has discontinued a significant $258 million HIV vaccine research programme. This decision effectively shuts down two major research hubs, Duke University’s Human Vaccine Institute and the Scripps Research Institute in California, which have been instrumental in the long-standing search for a vaccine against the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

Officials from the HIV division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) informed programme leaders of this decision on a Friday. The NIH stated that the termination followed an internal review and was based on a strategic decision to concentrate on existing strategies for eliminating HIV, rather than continuing to allocate funds towards new vaccine research efforts.

The research teams affected by this discontinuation had been collaborating with an extensive network of research partners. Their work was not limited to HIV; it also encompassed the development of COVID-19 treatments, snake anti-venom, and therapies for various autoimmune diseases. The termination of the programme means that ongoing experiments will be halted, and specialized research teams, which took years to assemble, will be dispersed.

This development is the latest in a series of reductions to HIV-related initiatives under the Trump administration. Beyond ending this specific vaccine programme, the NIH has also paused funding for a clinical trial of an HIV vaccine developed by Moderna. Furthermore, funding for state and territorial HIV prevention efforts has been withheld, leading to disruptions in services in several jurisdictions, including Texas.

Experts in the field have expressed concerns that this latest decision will significantly delay progress in HIV vaccine development. They warn that dismantled programmes and disbanded research teams will be very difficult and time-consuming to rebuild in the future, potentially setting back the quest for an effective HIV vaccine by a considerable margin.