USAID: Canceled HIV Initiative Slows Vaccine and Prevention Progress

The USAID-funded ADVANCE program, led by IAVI, which supported a portfolio of HIV vaccine and prevention research was terminated in early 2025. At the time of the initial stop work order, multiple high-value clinical research efforts were underway, including:

1. A planned Phase 1 trial of a next-generation investigational HIV vaccine in Rwanda, Kenya and South Africa). The study was halted just as participant screening was beginning and much preparation had taken place. Trial-ready vaccines later expired and had to be discarded, and the effort remains on hold without replacement funding.
2. A multicountry study enrolling 1,200 adolescent girls and young women to understand barriers to accessing long-acting PreP. The stop-work interrupted the study mid-trial, abruptly cutting off access to prevention products for hundreds of participants in Uganda and Zambia and effectively invalidating scientific insights that could have been gained. The South African government stepped in to support continuation of the South-African arm only, but with a reduced approach, limiting certain lines of research. There are no active plans or funding to re-start the full study.

In parallel, ADVANCE was also supporting manufacturing of monoclonal antibodies for future HIV prevention trials in Africa, work that narrowly reached completion before termination. The program also supported significant research capacity-strengthening in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Zambia, and South Africa to support African laboratories and scientists in preparing for future HIV vaccine trials requiring more novel approaches. Philanthropic support has sustained some of these elements, but roughly 40 percent of planned capacity strengthening efforts were abandoned. ADVANCE also supported a globally important HIV biorepository that has underpinned vaccine and antibody discovery worldwide, with nearly 80,000 samples shared with scientists around the world. This resource is now at risk and being temporarily maintained using IAVI's own limited internal funds.

The termination has also created severe economic impacts for IAVI’s workforce, which spans the United States (New York, New Jersey, and California), India, South Africa, and other nations, as well as for partner implementers. Due to the termination, IAVI laid off roughly 90 percent of staff working on the program, including significant job losses in the United States. By stopping research midstream, the termination wasted taxpayer investment, disrupted trial participant care, and undermined US scientific and diplomatic relationships. Experts agreement that current HIV tools alone may be insufficient to end the epidemic without a vaccine; halting ADVANCE delays progress toward that goal and weakens a research ecosystem that benefits global and US health security.