By Bunmi Yekini
In a stunning blow to the global HIV research community, the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has notified researchers that it will not renew funding for two of the most prominent HIV vaccine discovery consortia. The decision, delivered verbally by program officers, could stall momentum in a field that is finally seeing promising vaccine leads after decades of painstaking research.
The two consortia, led by Scripps Research and Duke University, were awarded $129 million each in 2019 as part of a seven-year grant cycle set to expire in 2026. NIAID’s abrupt announcement means no further funding will be available to continue their work beyond that date.
“This couldn’t have happened at a worse time,” said Dr. Dennis Burton, who leads the Scripps-based Consortium for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Development (CHAVD). “The recent clinical trial results are very promising. Projects will now be terminated or splintered, and there won’t be cohesion. We rely on multiple different teams working together to advance quickly, and that’s likely to be lost now.”
Dr. Barton Haynes, head of the CHAVD at Duke, expressed similar frustration. “It’s devastating, and we’re going to have to find new partners,” he said. “There’s been a massive investment over the years in this, and it’s really starting to pay off, and now, boom, it’s just stopped.”
Although the reason for the funding withdrawal remains unclear, researchers say they were told it was a directive from higher up. When asked whether the decision came from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) or the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which oversees NIAID, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon did not clarify. Instead, he emphasised the department’s shift toward “strategic, coordinated approaches” to end HIV/AIDS.
An internal NIH email, verified by Science, revealed that “NIH leadership” blocked a previously approved plan to fund similar consortia for another five years, citing a refocus on “currently available approaches” to combat HIV/AIDS.
Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, a nonprofit advocating for HIV prevention, warned of the long-term implications: “This sets us back at a pivotal moment. The consortia really have been pioneers in vaccine discovery.”
The announcement also follows NIAID’s termination of funding for three Simian Vaccine Evaluation Units—research groups that test experimental vaccines in monkeys, a key step in HIV vaccine development.
“This will definitely slow things down,” said Dr. Mark Lewis, CEO of Bioqual Inc., one of the affected units. “They’re throwing nuclear bombs in the scientific community. It’s going to be totally shocking, and it will take decades to rebuild.”
Researchers have been chasing an HIV vaccine for over 40 years. While antiviral treatments now control the virus effectively, a long-lasting vaccine remains the ultimate goal, one that many believed was finally within reach. Both consortia have focused on vaccines that generate broadly neutralizing antibodies capable of combating diverse HIV strains.
“It’s taken a long time, and I think that’s frustrated the field and certainly has frustrated us,” said Haynes. “But the good news is both consortia are making progress. It’s still very difficult, and we’re committed to finishing the job.”
But with just a year of funding left, that job now hangs in the balance. Dr. John Moore, a prominent HIV vaccine researcher unaffiliated with the consortia, fears the broader message this sends. “It’s very difficult to compensate for the volume of NIH dollars,” Moore said. “The agenda at HHS is to eliminate vaccine science, so this is one opportunity for them to do so.”
In 2022, NIH provided 70% of the $740 million spent globally on HIV vaccine research. The end of CHAVD, experts warn, could leave a void too large for the field to overcome.
“From the email, it would seem they’re going to reduce HIV vaccine funding greatly overall,” Burton added. “This will become a fragmented field, if indeed it continues at all.”