Trump Kills Clinical Research

In January, clinics in Uganda and Zambia were selecting people living with HIV to take part in a phase 1 trial of an experimental vaccine. But the project, meant to inform new ways to protect uninfected people from the virus, was funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Within days of taking office, President Donald Trump’s administration imposed a 90-day freeze on USAID funding and work.

This presented organizers of the trial with a dilemma: They would not be able to finish the clinical research portion of the study before the vaccine expired. “We couldn’t properly continue the study knowing that we wouldn’t be able to complete it,” says Mark Feinberg, president and CEO of IAVI, an international nonprofit overseeing the work.

https://www.science.org/content/article/researchers-face-impossible-decisions-u-s-aid-freeze-halts-clinical-trials