CDC reportedly prepares $1.6M for halted newborn hepatitis B trial

Budget reportedly reserved for a suspended trial

According to Ars Technica, CDC director's-office staff told the agency budget office in late September to reserve $1.6 million for the proposed trial. The study would enroll 14,000 newborns in Guinea-Bissau, with half receiving a hepatitis B vaccine dose at birth and half not receiving it. The trial remains suspended pending final government authorization.

The trial was suspended in January and remains on hold while national authorization in Guinea-Bissau is pending.

CDC director's-office staff reportedly directed that $1.6 million be set aside for the suspended trial. The revised design has also received approval at the University of Southern Denmark, according to the report, but the study cannot begin without national authorization in Guinea-Bissau.

Resumption still needs final government authorization

The reported funding preparation concerns a trial that has not resumed and whose design has drawn objections from outside experts and the World Health Organization over withholding a proven birth-dose vaccine from part of the newborn group.