Contact: dorrit.walsh@treatmentactiongroup.org
New York City, May 21, 2025 – TAG demands immediate action by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide Congressionally appropriated and committed funding to the HIV clinical research networks (ACTG, HPTN, HVTN, IMPAACT). Thousands of people are currently taking part in clinical trials to improve the treatment and prevention of HIV, TB, and related conditions, but withholding of funds and grant terminations are now threatening the ability of researchers to adhere to the ethical and legal requirements for protecting human research participants.[1] The NIH is required to follow applicable law.
Despite new NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya’s statement that the NIH “must maintain the highest standards of transparency in all our endeavors,”[2] the current US administration has been opaque about the status of already awarded and appropriated NIH grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements.
For example, blanket grant terminations have reportedly been communicated to Harvard University as part of a dishonest charade in which specious accusations of fostering antisemitism are being used as a pretext to attack academic institutions[3] (abusing concerns about antisemitism in this way is inherently antisemitic).
The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health houses the Centers that collect and analyze data for two of the HIV clinical research networks: Advancing Clinical Therapeutics Globally for HIV/AIDS and Other Infections (ACTG), and the International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials (IMPAACT) Network. If these Centers cannot continue their work, there’ll be no mechanism for collecting the required safety, efficacy, and monitoring data for over 3,000 participants in trials related to HIV, TB, and other comorbidities — in violation of domestic law and international ethical standards. A Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) cannot meet to review the safety of an ongoing trial if nobody is collecting and analyzing the requisite data from participants.
The networks have also been affected by the multiple other tactics being used to assault scientific research, including the withdrawal of funding of research in South Africa (see the May 15 brief by TAG, MSF and the SAMRC[4]). The ban was recently compounded by a pause on issuing NIH grant subawards to all non-US partners, which sustain the research infrastructure for the international studies that are vital for advancing prevention and care for HIV, TB, HCV and multiple other health conditions.[5] Unworkably stringent limits on support for indirect costs at academic institutions are another imminent threat, which the US Republican party are attempting to codify in budget legislation[6] in the face of court challenges.[7]
The withholding of NIH funds and grant terminations for specious reasons extends far beyond just the HIV clinical research networks. At the American Thoracic Society meeting this week, it was reported that Northwestern University has received no obligated NIH funds since March 26, 2025. No written communications have been received from the NIH to explain why, and the institution’s trustees are currently having to cover $10 million per week to support what should be NIH-funded research.[8] Many institutions are believed to be facing a similarly dishonorable reneging on commitments by NIH.
There is a legal, ethical, and moral obligation to support the current NIH awards which fund the HIV clinical networks – ACTG, HPTN, HVTN, and IMPAACT – and to address this crisis immediately. TAG calls on Congress to exert its power of the purse to prevent the disaster that is unfolding, and on all stakeholders to protest the unethical, dishonorable, and potentially law-breaking machinations of the NIH under the leadership of Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Jay Bhattacharya, and Matthew Memoli.
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About TAG: Treatment Action Group (TAG) is an independent, activist and community-based research and policy think tank fighting for better treatment, prevention, a vaccine, and a cure for HIV, tuberculosis, and hepatitis C virus. TAG works to ensure that all people with HIV, TB, and HCV receive lifesaving treatment, care, and information. We are science-based treatment activists working to expand and accelerate vital research and effective community engagement with research and policy institutions.
[1] Code of Federal Regulations. Title 45 Subtitle A Subchapter A Part 46: Protection of Human Subjects.
[2] Bhattacharya J. Email to NIH staff. 2025 April 1.
[3] Baym M. NIH Outstanding Investigator Award Termination Notice. Bluesky. 2025 May 13.
[4] TAG, Médecins Sans Frontières, the South African Medical Research Council. South Africa’s TB and HIV Research at Risk: A Call to Catalyze Urgent Action by Funders. 2025 May 15.
[5] Kozlov M. Exclusive: NIH to end billions of dollars in foreign research grants. Nature. 2025 Apr 30.
[6] Waldman M. Trump proposes massive NIH budget cut and reorganization. Science. 2025 April 17.
[7] Jones N. NIH cuts triggered a host of lawsuits: Nature’s guide to what’s next. Nature. 2025 Apr 11.
[8] Singer B. Presentation at the American Thoracic Society conference. 2025 May 18.