The sudden shutdown of a USAID-funded malaria vaccine initiative disrupted an ongoing clinical trial, invalidated results, and set back progress toward more effective, longer-lasting vaccines.
Washington, DC
La Jolla, CA
Jupiter, FL
Baltimore, MD
Austin, TX
England
Denmark
The termination of a USAID malaria vaccine development program at PATH in early 2025 halted a promising effort to advance next-generation malaria vaccines with potential to improve upon the protection and durability of existing vaccines. The award supported clinical development led by the University of Oxford of experimental blood-stage vaccines designed to block the parasite’s replication in the bloodstream, as well as pre-clinical development, led by PATH, of a next-generation, improved circumsporozoite protein (CSP) vaccine, that like existing vaccines, blocks liver-stage infection early in the parasite’s lifecycle.
When the stop-work order was issued, Oxford was in the middle of a Phase 1 challenge trial of two experimental blood-stage vaccines. The study was halted midstream, leaving at least 42 patients who had received different doses in limbo, invalidating any trial results, and leaving investigators responsible for providing follow up care without expected resources.
The termination caused cascading scientific and workforce impacts. Oxford later secured alternative funding to move forward with a separate planned phase 1 challenge trial, but progress was slowed and resources were unnecessarily wasted. At PATH, work on the improved CSP vaccine largely stopped, and several researchers lost jobs, dismantling years of iterative research and expertise that was leading toward first-in-human studies of the vaccine. Exploratory research on combination blood-stage and CSP vaccine approaches that could improve protection was also set back. Overall, the termination weakened trust with global partners and erased momentum toward more effective, longer-lasting vaccines for a disease that still kills more than 600,000 people a year, most of whom are young children.
Partners: PATH (US offices in Seattle, WA; Washington, DC); University of Oxford (England); Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla, CA; Jupiter, FL); Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD); University of Texas at Austin (Austin, TX); AdaptVac (Denmark); Statens Serum Institut (Denmark)