Guinea-Bissau’s Judicial Police raided Bandim Health Project offices on October 19, and the proposed vaccine trial will not go ahead. The officers seized a batch of hepatitis B vaccines during the raid. The move followed days after Quinhin Nantote said the government had not been informed and that the trial would not proceed.
October 19 Raid in Guinea-Bissau
The raid targeted the Bandim Health Project after the proposed HBV trial briefly resurfaced with updated ethical approval from the University of Southern Denmark and $1.6 million in grant funding from the CDC. The Judicial Police said the seizure was an investigative measure, and PJ added that the vaccines were intended for child immunization and that proceedings should safeguard children's health.
Quinhin Nantote, Guinea-Bissau’s minister of public health, set out the government’s objection on October 13. He said, "We were […] surprised that the Guinea-Bissau government had already authorized widespread [vaccine] administration" and added, "We were angered because neither I, as minister, nor those responsible, had been informed." He also said, "any scientific research initiative involving human beings, particularly children, must strictly comply with applicable national legislation, international ethical principles, competent evaluation, and approval mechanisms."
University of Southern Denmark Approval
The University of Southern Denmark had put the study on hold in March, then the SDU Research Ethics Committee granted approval based on an updated methodology. That sequence created the friction: the revised protocol moved forward on ethics grounds even as Guinea-Bissau’s government said the project would not proceed. The approval did not settle the political dispute around vaccine administration, and the police action turned that dispute into a practical stop.
The case also sits inside a wider controversy around the Bandim Health Project’s HBV trial. The project had revised its protocol after the hold, but the renewed approval triggered backlash from Guinea-Bissau authorities. Christine Stabell Benn had said in November 2024 that she hoped Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. would "be a catalyst for opening Pandora’s box," and the current dispute shows how sharply that debate has now landed in Guinea-Bissau.
Bandim Health Project and CDC Funding
For the Bandim Health Project, the immediate consequence is that the vaccines taken in the raid are now subject to investigative procedures. For children who were meant to receive the shots, the study has stopped at the point where regulatory approval, public objection, and police enforcement collided. The unresolved part is narrower now: what specific changes were made in the updated protocol that persuaded the University of Southern Denmark before Guinea-Bissau moved to shut the project down.
