HHS on Friday (March 21) terminated the Adolescent Trials Network, the only network that focuses on adolescents and young people in HIV prevention, care and treatment. The network conducted studies to improve health outcomes for young people living with HIV.
Lisa Hightow-Weidman, one of the principal investigators for the program, wrote on LinkedIn that investments in the Adolescent Trials Network (ATN) have led to life-saving treatments and prevention tools.
“The termination letter, effective immediately, used the following language (many grants have seen) that ‘research programs based primarily on artificial and non-scientific categories, including amorphous equity objectives, are antithetical to the scientific inquiry, do nothing to expand our knowledge of living systems, provide low returns on investment, and ultimately do not enhance health, lengthen life, or reduce illness,’” she wrote.
The same language used in National Institutes of Health (NIH) letters terminating grants related to transgender people and LGBT health topics, despite NIH records claiming the terminations are unrelated to President Donald Trump’s executive orders regarding gender identity and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
Hightow-Weidman said since 2001, ATN saw over 30,000 enrollments across 150 studies and tackles important health challenges for youth, including the ongoing HIV epidemic.
“The ATN is not a DEI initiative and does not use arbitrary categories for our research. The ATN responds directly to disease burden, healthcare gaps, and population-level health threats using epidemiological data from all adolescents and young adults in the US,” she wrote.
In a statement to Inside Health Policy, Hightow-Weidman said the network’s track record speaks to its scientific merit, public health relevance and potential for continued innovation.
“The termination of the ATN threatens to unravel years of progress, disrupt a critical infrastructure of research and care, and silence a trusted voice in adolescent HIV prevention and treatment while putting the future of our country, our youth, and the nation’s public health, at risk,” she said.
In a statement to Inside Health Policy, HHS Deputy Press Secretary Emily Hilliard said the agency is taking action to terminate research funding that is not aligned with NIH and HHS priorities.
“At HHS, we are dedicated to restoring our agencies to their tradition of upholding gold-standard, evidence-based science. As we begin to Make America Healthy Again, it's important to prioritize research that directly affects the health of Americans. We will leave no stone unturned in identifying the root causes of the chronic disease epidemic as part of our mission to Make America Healthy Again,” Hilliard wrote.
Jim Pickett, an advisor at ATN, said 20% of new HIV infections occur in people under 24 years old. The ATN helped get PrEP an indication for those under 18 in the United States, leading to other countries around the world to do the same.
The termination of ATN comes as the Trump administration flirts with the idea of defunding HIV prevention programs, including the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of HIV Prevention. Julia Marcus, a researcher working on how pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) can best be used to prevent HIV at Harvard Medical School, said Friday (March 21) several NIH grants for her research projects were terminated in the past 24 hours and other researchers are experiencing the same thing, describing a “bloodbath” in HIV prevention research funded by NIH.
Stakeholders are also concerned about funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program, which is set to expire this week. The reauthorization expires March 25, but the most recent continuing resolution extended the funding until September. Once the reauthorization for the program expires this month, the Trump administration will have more flexibility in how it decides to use the funding.
Meanwhile, CMS did not respond to questions on whether the Trump administration will continue with a Biden-era national coverage determination that all forms of PrEP will be covered without cost-sharing. CMS also did not say whether it will include the expected twice-yearly preventative shot from Gilead in zero cost-sharing and whether the agency plans to increase enforcement for private plans to cover PrEP with zero cost-sharing.
Gilead Sciences, the maker of HIV prevention and treatment medications, previously told Inside Health Policy it is still on track for an FDA decision on its twice-yearly injectable medication this year despite agency-wide layoffs.
President Biden’s CMS said it would cover all forms of PrEP without cost-sharing after the agency issued a national coverage determination in September that switched the treatment from Part D to Part B. -- Luke Zarzecki (lzarzecki@iwpnews.com)
Editor's Note: This article has been updated to correct Jim Pickett's title.