Why Guinea-Bissau halted a controversial hepatitis vaccine trial for babies

Guinea-Bissau has reportedly halted a controversial United States-funded hepatitis B virus vaccine (HBV) trial which drew global scrutiny when experts said it involved withholding lifesaving shots from thousands of babies. The trial failed to gain the necessary government approval, one researcher involved in the project said in a statement, adding that the end of the trial was a “significant setback” for African science. The West African nation’s judicial police said in mid-October that it had raided the facilities of the research group leading the project in the capital, Bissau, and seized vaccine batches.

Authorities said inquiries were continuing to determine whether the trial had complied with the country’s safety standards. The trial was designed to assess the effects of World Health Organization (WHO)-recommended HBV vaccines on two groups of babies. One group would receive the vaccine at birth, and another, chosen at random, would receive it six weeks later.

Some 14,000 babies were expected to be involved in the trial.