A planned US-funded hepatitis B vaccine trial in newborns in Guinea-Bissau will not go ahead, its Danish lead researcher said on Wednesday, The Guardian reports.
Frederik Schaltz-Buchholzer wrote on LinkedIn that the team had not received the required government approval. Guinea-Bissau's health minister had already denied the study was proceeding, and authorities took control of the researchers' vaccines during a search of the Bandim Health Project's offices on Monday.
The study was to receive $1.6m from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the same again from private foundations. It would have tested whether giving the hepatitis B jab alongside the BCG vaccine reduces BCG's wider benefits. Critics, including the US vaccine expert Paul Offit, called it unethical because some babies would go unvaccinated. The World Health Organization advises a dose within a day of birth.
Source: The Guardian
