Trump Administration Will Cut HIV Vaccine Research Project Funds

- Illustration - HIV/AIDS Campaign (ANTARA PHOTO/Irwansyah Putra)

The Donald Trump administration has decided to end funding for a number of major HIV vaccine research programs, CBS News reported on Friday (30/5).

The researchers received notification that the US Department of Health and Humanitarian Services (HHS) decided to focus the budget on existing HIV prevention methods, rather than continuing investment in vaccine development.

This move has an impact on a number of well-known research centers, including the Duke Human Vaccine Institute and the Scripts Research Institute, which have received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since 2012.

A spokesman from biotechnology company Moderna also confirmed that clinical trials previously supported by the NIH HIV Vaccine Trial Network (HIV Vaccine Trials Network) are now temporarily suspended.

A senior NIH official said that the agency was directed by HHS not to approve new funding for HIV vaccine research in the coming fiscal year, except for some limited cases.

In addition, the new budget accounting rules imposed on HIV vaccine grants will make applying for funds increasingly difficult, as it requires the calculation of the full cost of multi-year grants in one fiscal year.

HHS spokesman Emily Hilliard defended this decision on the grounds of complexity and overlap in the national HIV/AIDS program.

He stated that HHS aims to maximize the impact of federal spending and strengthen budget oversight, considering that there are 27 HIV/AIDS programs that have absorbed a budget of 7.5 billion US dollars (equivalent to Rp122.2 trillion).

Hilliard added that the crucial HIV/AIDS program will continue to run under the new institution proposed by the Minister of Health HHS, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., named "Administration for a Healthy America".

However, the decision drew criticism from scientists. Dennis Burton, professor of immunology from Scripts Research, said the termination time was very bad, especially as a number of clinical trials showed promising progress.

"This could be a decade-long setback for HIV vaccine research," he said.

According to the official US government website, HIV.gov, until now there has been no vaccine to prevent HIV infection. However, scientists around the world continue to work on developing vaccines with the support of the National Institutes of Health.