Despite the lack of funding from South Africa’s government, clinical trials for an HIV vaccine that launched July 20 will continue with financial backing from the United States, The Associated Press reports.

According to Anna-Lisa Williamson, an AIDS researcher at the University of Cape Town’s Department of Science and Technology had stopped funding the South African AIDS Vaccine initiative this year, and the funding contract through public utility Eskom was not renewed when it ended last year.

In addition, AIDS activists and organizations have criticized the vaccine research, saying that the money would be better spent on prevention and education efforts.

“International organizations told Eskom that this was a terrible waste of money, that putting money into South African scientists was like backing the cart horse when they need to be backing the race horse,” Williamson said.

The vaccine has been developed to target the HIV subtype C strain, which is prevalent in southern Africa. Last year, South Africa had the highest rate of HIV infection with 5.2 million cases.