South African lab technician Nozipho Mlotshwa was waiting for the test results for a potential HIV vaccine, which has eluded scientists for decades, when the order came from USAID to stop work.
The first round of vaccines she and her colleagues made in Johannesburg had produced an immune response in rabbits, which was promising but not conclusive – so they tweaked the formula and sent off four new versions for pre-clinical tests.
“This was very exciting. We were getting quite good results,” Mlotshwa, 32, said in the lab in the Antiviral Gene Therapy Research Unit at the city’s University of the Witwatersrand.
Now, the animal blood samples containing their results are sitting untouched in a freezer.
A trial of an earlier, separate vaccine candidate, which was about to be tested on humans in South Africa, as well as Kenya and Uganda, is also on ice.
Both trials are among the casualties of the U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to dismantle the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
They are part of a wider South African-led HIV vaccine development scheme known as BRILLIANT and funded entirely by a $45 million grant from USAID. It is unclear if or when the project could resume. The U.S. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“It feels like you’re building something, and you could really make a huge difference,” Chief Scientific Officer at the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation, Nigel Garrett, a partner in the project, said.
“And then it’s wiped away.”
The project is one of many research efforts worldwide to be hit by Trump’s actions since taking office last month. Others include halting efforts to protect food crops from pests and diseases and blocking publication of a paper on the mpox outbreak.
Holy Grail
HIV’s ability to mutate quickly has confounded efforts to create a vaccine ever since it was first identified in 1983. The researchers in Johannesburg are using mRNA technology that created some COVID-19 vaccines.
Several other mRNA-based HIV vaccine candidates worldwide have reached clinical trials. BRILLIANT is unique in being Africa-led, aiming to develop capacity for producing vaccines in Africa.
For the past year, the Johannesburg team had been working with genetic sequences from two South African patients who have HIV but whose bodies produce a rare type of antibody that neutralizes the virus. They are trying to simulate that immune response.
“We were gaining momentum,” director of the research unit, Patrick Arbuthnot said, adding: “Ann HIV vaccine is the holy grail of the field.”
Reuters/ Shakirat Sadiq
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