By Emma Black

In a major setback to the decades-long quest for an HIV vaccine, the U.S. National institute of Allergy and infectious diseases (NIAID) on May 30, 2025 has announced it will not renew funding for two major HIV vaccine consortia when their current grants expire in 2026, the decision, which researchers say was communicated verbally, also comes alongside a halt in funding for three research groups that test experimental vaccines in monkeys.

The abrupt move has stunned scientists working on the frontlines of HIV research, many of whom say it comes at a critical moment when new clinical trial results are renewing hope in a field long marked by setbacks.

This couldn’t have come at a worse time, said Dr. Dennis Burton of Scripps Research, who leads one of the two Consortia for HIV/AIDS vaccine development (CHAVD),we’re finally seeing promising leads, and now they’re pulling the rug out from under us.

Since their creation in 2005, the consortia hosted by Scripps Research and Duke University have driven some of the most cutting-edge advances in HIV vaccine development, moving promising candidates into early-stage clinical trials, in 2019, each consortium received a seven-year, $129 million grant from NIAID. Now, they’ve been told there will be no renewal when those grants expire in June 2026.

Dr. Barton Haynes, who heads the CHAVD at Duke, said the decision contradicts previous guidance from NIAID’s advisory council, which had approved a plan to fund similar programs at over $30 million per year for five years, we were waiting for the next call for proposals, Haynes said, But instead, we were told that plan has been scrapped.

An email obtained by Science from NIH’s acting director of extramural research confirms that NIH leadership” chose not to support the continuation of the consortia, citing a strategic pivot towards using currently available approaches to eliminate HIV/AIDS.

That reasoning has alarmed experts across the field, it’s a devastating blow, said Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, a nonprofit focused on HIV prevention, these consortia have led pioneering efforts in vaccine discovery, and this sets us back at a pivotal moment.

Haynes echoed the concern, there’s been massive investment, and it’s finally paying off, Now, boom it’s just stopped, we’re going to have to find new partners, Burton warned that the cuts may signal broader funding reductions across HIV vaccine research, not just for the consortia. This could lead to a fragmented, underfunded field if it survives at all, he said.

Adding to researchers’ concerns, NIAID also announced it will stop funding three Simian Vaccine Evaluation Units, which test HIV vaccines on monkeys, one of those affected, Mark Lewis, CEO of Bioqual Inc., described the decision as like throwing a nuclear bomb in the scientific community. It’s going to be totally shocking, and it could take decades to rebuild.”

While HIV can now be managed with antiretroviral drugs and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) can prevent infection these approaches rely on frequent use and access to medical care, a long-lasting vaccine has remained a scientific priority for over four decades, with an estimated 1.3 million new infections occurring globally in the past year alone.

The consortia have been at the forefront of research into so-called “broadly neutralizing antibodies immune system defences that can target multiple variants of HIV, developing a vaccine that can trigger such a response has long been a goal of researchers, it’s taken years of work, and it’s still incredibly difficult, said Haynes, but we’re finally seeing results, we’re not done yet we’re committed to finishing the job.

In 2022, the NIH was the single largest funder of HIV vaccine research worldwide, accounting for 70% of the $740 million spent globally. That level of investment is difficult to replace, said John Moore, a veteran HIV vaccine researcher, this will be a huge blow, you can’t just plug that kind of funding gap, he said, it looks like there’s an agenda at HHS to move away from vaccine science entirely.

While the department of health and human Services (HHS), which oversees NIH, declined to clarify whether it made the final decision, spokesperson Andrew Nixon stated the department remains committed to supporting critical HIV/AIDS work, he also argued for ending inefficient health programming models in favor of more strategic, coordinated approaches.

For the scientists working tirelessly toward a vaccine, that statement rings hollow, as the CHAVDs face an uncertain future, researchers are now racing to find alternative funding before their progress is lost.

Copy right –Printed in the Expo Times News on Monday, June 2nd, 2025 (ExpoTimes News – Expo Media Group (expomediasl.com)