A vaccine trial on babies in Guinea-Bissau that was funded by the United States has been cancelled, according to a BBC News report. The outlet's headline says its full report explains why the trial was called off, but the summary available for this story does not give those reasons.

According to BBC News, the trial was condemned as "unethical" and as neocolonial. The summary states that the criticism rests on the trial's design, under which half of the babies would not be given the vaccine.

BBC News does not identify in its summary who made the criticism. The summary also does not name the organizations that ran or financed the trial beyond describing it as US-funded, and it does not give the number of babies enrolled.

The BBC News summary does not say whether the criticism led to the cancellation. Nor does it describe the vaccine, the illness it was meant to prevent, or when the trial was halted, and it includes no response from anyone connected to the trial.

BBC News describes the criticism in two terms, saying the trial was condemned as unethical and as neocolonial. The summary uses these words without identifying who applied them, so their origin cannot be confirmed from this source.

Because the summary is brief, readers seeking the reasons for the cancellation and the positions of those involved would need to consult the full BBC News report. This account relies only on that summary and does not draw on any other outlet's reporting.

Sources: BBC News: Why a US-funded vaccine trial on babies was cancelled in Guinea-Bissau.