Biopharma Targets an HIV Cure as NIH Funding Cuts Threaten To Derail Progress

Since Donald Trump took office in January, the National Institutes of Health has seen its funding cut for numerous HIV studies, alarming researchers and likely reducing the chances of achieving the president’s own 2019 goal of ending HIV in the U.S. by 2030. Against this backdrop, biopharma companies such as Gilead Sciences and Immunocore are pursuing the holy grail—a cure.

Medicine has made considerable strides against HIV since the advent of the epidemic in 1981. The death rate from HIV in the U.S. fell from 16.2 per 100,000 infected people in 1995 to 1.3 per 100,000 in 2022, according to Statista, as antiretroviral therapy (ART) controlled the virus in people with HIV and, more recently, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) allowed high-risk individuals to protect themselves against infection in the first place.

This progress could be in danger, however. As of April 11, the NIH had cancelled approximately 770 active research grants, Scientific American reported. Of the projects axed as of that date, 29% were related to HIV/AIDS, according to the publication. These programs and those focused on COVID-19 made up a disproportionate amount of the culled research, accounting for 46% of halted projects despite these areas garnering less than 4% of 2024 NIH grants.