Controversial trial of a tuberculosis vaccine on African babies

Oxford University scientists gave babies trial TB vaccine ‘that did not work on monkeys’

image of tuberculosis vaccine
  • Professor Peter Beverley, a former principal research fellow at Oxford University, made the claim
  • A “monkey study” began in November 2006. Scientists ignored worrying data, collected by Government officials, that showed primates given the booster jab seemed to “die rather rapidly”.
  • Oxford researchers applied for funding 18 months later, for a clinical trial on 2,800 babies, but Professor Beverley said that regulators weren’t given the results of the study.
  • The “baby trial” began in July 2009 ; in 2013 the results indicated that the new vaccine offered no extra protection.
  • Oxford university has since denied the claim and an inquiry found no wrongdoing.

Press Releases

  • Babies were given a trial TB vaccine ‘that did not work on monkeys by Oxford University scientists’, former academic at the institution claims, dailymail, 5 September 2017.
  • Oxford University scientists gave babies trial TB vaccine ‘that did not work on monkeys’, telegraph, 3 SEPTEMBER 2017.
  • Oxford University scientists gave hundreds of babies a trial TB vaccine that ‘did not work on monkeys’, independent, 4 September 2017.
  • TB vaccine administered to African children, despite fatalities in monkeys, today.mims, 11 Sep 2017.
  • Featured image credit File on 4.

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