‘It’s the sovereignty of the country’: Guinea-Bissau says US vaccine study suspended

The GuardianEditor

January 23, 2026 | 11:18 PM•1 min read

Originally published on The Guardian

‘It’s the sovereignty of the country’: Guinea-Bissau says US vaccine study suspended

Despite US pushback, officials in west Africa say controversial hepatitis B study on pause amid ethics concerns

US health officials insisted it was still on. African health leaders said it was cancelled. At the heart of the controversy is the west African nation of Guinea-Bissau – one of the poorest countries in the world and the proposed site of a hotly debated US-funded study on vaccines.

The study on hepatitis B vaccination, to be led by Danish researchers, became a flashpoint after major changes to the US vaccination schedule and prompted questions about how research is conducted ethically in other countries.