WASHINGTON — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded a $1.6 million grant to controversial researchers at the University of Southern Denmark with ties to top Food and Drug Administration official Tracy Beth Høeg. The funding is for a study on hepatitis B vaccines that some experts say may be unethical and is unlikely to generate data relevant to use of the vaccine in this country.
Christine Stabell Benn and her husband, Peter Aaby, lead the Bandim Health Project, a research site located in Guinea-Bissau in West Africa. The CDC has awarded them a grant to run a placebo-controlled trial of the hepatitis B vaccine in newborns. Guinea-Bissau currently gives babies their first hepatitis B vaccine dose at 6 weeks of age, not birth. It plans to adopt a universal birth dose policy, which is recommended by the World Health Organization, in 2027.
