Brewing Battle Over Fetal Tissue Research Could Undermine Testing Of HIV Treatments

Over the past few months, the Trump administration has been quietly auditing all federal funding involving fetal tissue research. The University of California at San Francisco's research laboratory, which has been instrumental in testing virtually all HIV therapies subsequently approved by the FDA since the 1990s, has been sucked into the controversy.

The Washington Post: Trump Administration Threatens Future Of HIV Research Hub

The Trump administration has thrown into doubt a multimillion-dollar research contract to test new treatments for HIV that relies on fetal tissue — work targeted by antiabortion lawmakers and social conservatives aligned with the president. The turmoil over the National Institutes of Health contract with the University of California at San Francisco is part of a building battle between conservatives opposed to research using fetal tissue and scientists who say the material is vital to developing new therapies for diseases from AIDS to Parkinson’s. (Goldstein, 12/4)

In other news on HIV —

St. Louis Public Radio: HIV PrEP Program Thrives In St. Louis, Makes ‘Tools To End The Epidemic’ Widely Accessible

Every year on Dec. 1, the international community mourns those who have been lost to HIV/AIDS and celebrates the ongoing progress in treating, preventing and researching the disease. On Tuesday’s St. Louis on the Air, president and CEO of AIDS United Jesse Milan told host Don Marsh that the day of commemoration is “an opportunity to remind people that this is still an epidemic nationally and globally.” (Ellin, 12/4)

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