Judicial police in Guinea-Bissau conducted a raid on the offices of the Bandim Health Project, seizing a supply of hepatitis B vaccines. Officials announced the operation via social media, describing it as a series of investigative steps aimed at clarifying the circumstances surrounding the specific batch of vaccines involved. The authorities clarified that the seizure was not prompted by findings related to the safety, effectiveness, or quality of the immunization doses themselves.
The organization, which has operated in the country for five decades, is currently mired in a significant controversy regarding research involving African newborns. The project has received $1.6 million in funding from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with an additional $1.6 million provided by the Pershing Square Foundation and the Bluebell Foundation, totaling $3.2 million for the study. Which the same researchers later conducted again and found completely different results, he has several times referenced the results of a study they conducted on the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP). She added, the country lacks the stability needed for clinical trials.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who currently serves as the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, has publicly championed the researchers, referring to them as the deities of vaccine research at a recent conference. Kennedy has frequently cited the work of Peter Aaby and Christine Stabell Benn, the project’s co-leaders, to challenge mainstream public health policies, including his own efforts to halt funding to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Even so, Kennedy called Aaby a “very famous” researcher on Joe Rogan’s podcast in 2023 and cited his research when he halted US funding to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
Despite the researchers recently posting a 14 July letter of approval for their trial from Guinea-Bissau’s national ethics committee, the government remains deeply divided. Quinhin Nantote, the health minister for the nation’s transitional government, explicitly denied that the research project would proceed. When asked about the trial status, Nantote firmly stated that the claims regarding the project’s progression were inaccurate. According to “This is not even remotely true,” Nantote, In Portuguese on Thursday.
The study has faced intense criticism from international health bodies.
Under its current design, the trial would withhold hepatitis B vaccines from 7,000 newborns during their first six weeks of life. The World Health Organization (WHO) has labeled this approach unethical, noting that hepatitis B vaccination within 24 hours of birth is a vital public health intervention. With roughly one in five adults in Guinea-Bissau carrying the virus—which can cause liver failure and cancer—WHO spokesperson Tarik Jašarević stressed that denying this protection exposes infants to serious, irreversible harm. Causing cancer and liver failure, and newborns are particularly vulnerable – but vaccination within 24 hours of birth is safe and highly effective at preventing illness, hepatitis B kills 15% to 25% of people with chronic infections. The organization is now fundraising to help roll out the vaccines at birth to all newborns in the country.
The Bandim Health Project, founded by Aaby in 1978, has seen its leadership involved in broader debates regarding vaccine oversight. Stabell Benn previously contributed to the US Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and has hosted podcasts alongside former FDA officials who advocate for limiting childhood vaccination schedules. Helping present evidence to the US committee that voted to end the universal birth recommendation before such decisions on vaccines were stayed by a federal judge, stabell Benn was a member of the hepatitis B working group of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
Critics, including Colette Delawalla of the non-profit Stand Up for Science, argue that Bandim has contributed little to the nation’s permanent medical infrastructure despite its long presence. Delawalla noted that the group often remains the only accessible medical provider for citizens in a region plagued by instability, including a military coup less than a year ago. She suggested that the government is utilizing its limited leverage to protect its youth from perceived exploitation by foreign research interests. According to “Our investigator encountered significant distrust of Bandim by the citizenry of Guinea-Bissau,”, Colette Delawalla, an American health researcher and founder of SUFS. “However, because of the lack of public health infrastructure, Bandim is often the only option in situations where people are desperate to access medical care of any kind.”. “Guinea-Bissau is in the difficult situation of trying to protect their youth, their future, from exploitation by two powerful western nations and they are using what leverage they have to do so,” Delawalla said.
Lead researchers Aaby, Stabell Benn, and project manager Frederik Schaltz-Buchholzer did not provide responses to inquiries regarding the raid or the current status of the clinical trial.
