The first indication of an overhaul came quickly from the new inauguration from US President Donald Trump. After returning to power in just two months, his administration had already reduced funding for more than 30 research projects related to reasons and measures against vaccine doubts. This made it clear to scientists that future MRNA in the US could endanger research.
At that time, the administration of the National Institute of Health (NIH), which is responsible for biomedical research, requested the list of all NIH-funded research projects dealing with MRNA technology. Thesis was to be sent to the Department of Health and Human Services and the White House. A similar request was made about research projects related to the vaccine doubt – before their money cut.
This week, Department of Health and Human Services – Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior, who is known for opposition to vaccines – announced that it would cut the research fund for MRNA vaccines in NIH by $ 500 million.
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A Details from Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) It said that it would eliminate many contracts, reject the application for research funding that were already submitted and some reorganized existing partnerships.
“We reviewed science, listed experts, and acted,” said Kennedy. Investments in 22 projects dealing with MRNA vaccines will be stopped “as data show thesis fails to save effectively against upper respiratory infections such as vaccines and flu.”
But experts immediately raised the issue with their statement. They explain that MRNA vaccines have successfully used bees used in Kovid epidemic.
“Overall MRNA TK Kovid -19 epidemic was responsible for saving millions of lives in the MRNA TK Covid -19 epidemic,” said Emeritus Charles Bangam at Immunology at Imperial College London.
“Some, if any, antiviral vaccines want to complete the virus by entering the body,” Bangam continued. “What the vaccine does to reduce the severity of infection, reduce the disease and reduce the risk of death.”
Slow MRNA research leaves us ‘more unsafe for future epidemic’
Jaime M. Yassif of Atomic Danger (NTI), a non -profit organization, which campaigns against biological, atomic and chemical weapons, called the announced cuts “a serious mistake”.
Yasif, biological and vice -president of programs Yasif at NTI, said in a statement, “Preventing research on very essential techniques to grow new vaccines makes Americans and the world weak for future epidemic.” This applies to naturally occurring diseases and both those that can be developed in a laboratory and used as weapons, they said.
Kennedy claims that MRNA vaccines do not provide reliable security “Yasif said,” Yasif said. “If not for the rapid deployment of MRNA vaccines during Covid-19, the cost in lost and economic damage in life would have been far more severe.”
The pharmaceutical company shares on the fugger cut
The German company Biontech, who developed one of the MNA Koronwirus vaccines in collaboration with the US pharmaceutical company PFIZER, is not affected by the cuts. “We have not discovered any discovery from the US government and nothing,” a spokesperson of Biontech told DW.
In contrast, the cooperation partner Fizer has been mentioned under the “rejection or canceled” of the proposals in the HHS statement. Following the announcement of Kennedy’s decision, the shares of the Fizer temporarily lost 3% of their value. The company did not respond to the request of the comment from DW.
Randown Emory University in US State Georgia is among those whose contracts are being injured with the US government. A spokesperson’s Woodroof Health Sciences Center told DW that the cutback affects a research project that includes a dryness of the cooperation of respiratory diseases such as Influenza and Kovid -19. Cooperation was announced only in September 2024.
Researchers at the University of Mori were planning to test whether antiviral treatment could be produced as a dry powder that does not require constant cooling. Money for this project has now been disconnected.
Research cut is beyond the US
MRNA technology is used not only in vaccines against respiratory diseases. From acne to lime disease and dengue fever to AIDS, researchers are for MRNA vaccines against various types of diseases. Research is being done worldwide, with China and South Korea in countries working on many projects.
Technology plays an important role in cancer research. In the fight against colon cancer, for example, American researchers are working on a drug that aims to prevent cancer from returning after the original tumor is removed from surgery. According to HHS, money should be maintained for such research. However, experts are also calling for continuous support for MRNA vaccine research.
Visiting a pharmaceutical professor at King’s College London in Panelope ward, “The alternative sources of funding cannot be secured,” will limit the US capacity to quickly develop the vaccine in a new epidemic event. In addition, he said, cuts are not only a problem for America. “It is harmful to all of us.”
This article was original in German.
