The United States National Institute of Health (NIH) has lifted its ban after an order to stop work with South Africa.
For nearly 18 months, many clinical trials were stopped, and researchers were retrenched when the NIH stopped funding.
In the midst of the ban, it created a crisis for HIV and TB research which included NIH grants and US agency for International Development aid.
Many of the world’s major advances over the past two decades in understanding the science of HIV arose from South African scientists and from studies conducted here, the vast majority of them funded by the NIH.
The United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) has lifted its ban on South Africa, nearly 18 months after its February order to stop work with South Africa created a crisis for HIV and TB research.
In January 2025, the United States began halting funding of South African projects, including NIH grants and US Agency for International Development (USAID) aid.
President and CEO of the South African Medical Research Council, Ntobeko Ntusi confirmed that the decision comes after 12 months of negotiating with the NIH “to reverse their position on South Africa.
“Part of the mandate of the NIH to engage in international research collaborations should be viewed in light of the fact that South Africa is one of only few countries that co-funded biomedical research with the NIH, rather than merely being a recipient.”
“I welcome this apt decision of the NIH because no country can ever solve the challenges of global health alone. We need scientific collaboration to drive scientific progress,” he added.
Linda-Gail Bekker, director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre, said the centre had to retrench people when the funding stopped, since it was largely NIH funded. It had a partnership with NIH for decades.
Bekker said there has been a long hiatus from receiving research protocols from their networks in the US, such as the Advancing Clinical Therapeutics Globally (ACTG), HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), and others.
She said their networks are coming to the end of seven-year trials for their clinical trials units. “We haven’t had confirmation that South Africa will be included. But we feel more optimistic than we did before,” said Bekker.
She added that they have received some funding from the SAMRC in reprieve of the lost NIH money but not anywhere close to the same volume.
In August 2025, the SAMRC announced that it had raised around R600-million in rescue funds to support research projects and groups affected by the cuts. This amount includes around R400-million from National Treasury, R100-million from the Gates Foundation, R100-million from the Wellcome Trust, and R14.4-million from the ELMA Foundation.
Bekker said the scientific advancements in South African HIV and TB research are also “good for the whole world” and the benefits have been “bidirectional”.
