In brief
Guinea‑Bissau halted a U.S.-funded hepatitis B vaccine trial after pressure from health experts and the government. The study, run by a Danish team, would have compared a birth‑dose with a six‑week dose for about 14,000 babies, but faced ethics concerns for withholding shots from half the participants.
On August 30, 2026, Guinea‑Bissau stopped a hepatitis B vaccine trial that was funded by the United States and led by a Danish research group. The study, planned to enroll roughly 14,000 infants, would have given one half of the babies a vaccine at birth and the other half a dose six weeks later, meaning half of the children would receive no protection for a period of time.
Africa’s only leading research institute in the country, the Bandim Health Project of the University of Southern Denmark, designed the trial as a way to compare the effectiveness of the World Health Organization’s recommended schedule. The researchers claimed the comparison would improve vaccine policies for the region.
The trial was supposed to cost $1.6 million from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When the proposal was announced in December, global health experts criticized the idea of withholding a lifesaving vaccine from one group of babies. The alarm quickly reached the Guinea‑Bissau government, which paused the project in January and began a formal review.
In mid‑October, Guinea‑Bissau’s judicial police raided the Bandim Health Project facilities in the capital, Bissau, and seized batches of the hepatitis B vaccine that were in the research group’s possession. Authorities said the investigation will determine whether the trial met the country’s safety standards.
The halt was described by one researcher involved as a significant setback for African science. The country’s officials have not issued a statement, but the police inquiry is ongoing. The removal of the vaccines and the pause of the trial leave a gap in the promised five‑year follow‑up of child health outcomes.
