Guinea-Bissau police raid offices of vaccine researchers backed by RFK Jr.
Judicial police in Guinea-Bissau searched the Bissau offices of a team of vaccine researchers praised by U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and seized dozens of doses of hepatitis B vaccine.
The search took place in the early afternoon of Monday, 19 October, at the installations of the Projeto Saude de Bandim in Bissau. Police said the seized lot had been destined for vaccination of children in Guinea-Bissau and will go through applicable legal procedures to establish facts and possible responsibilities. The Guardian
The police said the seizure did not point to irregularities in the quality, safety or effectiveness of the vaccines. They said investigations are continuing with respect for judicial secrecy and legally established guarantees.
The raid follows a dispute over a U.S.-funded proposal to study the hepatitis B birth dose, the shot recommended for newborns, in Guinea-Bissau. The disputed research was supported by $1.6 million from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, matched by the Pershing Square Foundation and the Bluebell Foundation for a total of $3.2 million.
Under a redesigned version of the study, researchers would still deny hepatitis B vaccines to 7,000 newborns in the first six weeks of life. The World Health Organization has opposed that design. WHO spokesperson Tarik Jašarević said any study denying hepatitis B vaccine to participants is unethical and exposes newborns to serious harm.
Guinea-Bissau's health minister, Quinhin Nantote, said the government did not authorize the Danish-led trial in babies backed by Kennedy. Nantote, who serves in the country's transitional government, told the Guardian that reports the trial would move forward are "not even remotely true." The Guardian
The Bandim Health Project, which was founded by Peter Aaby in 1978 and is now co-led by Christine Stabell Benn, has posted what it describes as a trial approval letter from Guinea-Bissau's national ethics committee. The letter is dated 14 July 2026 and signed by committee president Mouhammed Djicó Ould Ahmed.
Kennedy is the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. Officials in Guinea-Bissau had earlier stopped the clinical trial examining side effects of the hepatitis B vaccine.
