Guinea-Bissau has officially halted a controversial hepatitis B vaccine study that was funded by the U.S. government under the Trump administration. This decision comes after the World Health Organization raised ethical concerns regarding the design of the study, which aimed to enroll about 14,000 newborns. The foreign minister, Joao Bernardo Vieira, confirmed the cancellation, stating emphatically that the trial 'is not going to happen.'

The vaccine study, which was supported by a grant of $1.6 million from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was intended to address the high rates of hepatitis B in Guinea-Bissau. However, the project's design faced significant criticism from local health experts, including former health minister Magda Robalo, who labeled the trial 'not acceptable.' In her remarks to the science journal Nature, Robalo pointed to various ethical issues that made the continuation of the trial problematic.

This cancellation underscores the increasing scrutiny that research involving human subjects, particularly in vulnerable populations, faces in the global health landscape. The intervention has broader implications for international collaborations in health research, especially when they involve funding and oversight from foreign governments. As Guinea-Bissau prioritizes ethical standards and local health considerations, this situation may lead to tighter regulations and more cautious approaches to future vaccine trials in the region.