Bandim Health Project (BHP), an embattled group led by researchers in Denmark, led by health researcher Christine Stabell Benn, hit the headlines late last year after her team won $1.6 million in funding from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to test the effect of a birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine in newborns in Guinea-Bissau. Controversy erupted over the ethics of testing a vaccine already demonstrated to be effective. The trial has been suspended, according to press statements by officials in Guinea-Bissau, although CDC and Benn maintain it will proceed following further evaluation.

Benn’s group has been criticized in the past for what other researchers say are poor reporting practices – accusations her team denies. In a paper published today in Vaccine, researchers allege problems at BHP go deeper. The authors say they were unable to find comprehensive data on primary outcomes – the effects a trial was designed to investigate – for 10 of the group’s studies carried out over 2 decades. Together, the studies included tens of thousands of Bissau-Guinean children.

Source https://www.science.org/content/article/controversial-danish-vaccine-research-group-faces-new-allegations

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