Cuba Shares Vaccine Candidates Milestones with Sao Paulo Forum

Cuban health authorities and scientists presented the country's results in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and its goal of immunizing the entire population by 2021.

The Minister of Health, José Angel Portal, highlighted that the results obtained to date are favorable and praised both the health personnel's work and the management of science and innovation.

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For his part, the president of the Business Group of the Biotechnological and Pharmaceutical Industries of Cuba (BioCubafarma), Eduardo Martínez, highlighted the use of medicines and other supplies, including antivirals, immune system enhancers, anti-inflammatory drugs, preventive vaccines, diagnostics, and medical equipment.

He detailed the success of drugs such as Nasalferon, Biomodulin T, Interferons, and Jusvinza.

Also, as part of Cuban biotechnology's achievements against the pandemic, all the Cuban participants in the forum referred to the five vaccine candidates developed in this country, two of which are in phase III clinical trials and three others in I and II, respectively.

This Caribbean nation has Abdala and Mambisa from the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), and Soberana 01, Soberana 02, and Soberana PLUS, from the Finlay Vaccine Institute (IFV).

Soberana 02 was the first vaccine candidate in Latin America and the Caribbean to reach Phase III clinical trials, and Abdala is also currently in this final stage of the study.

Dr. Marta Ayala, director of the CIGB, explained that the clinical trial with Abdala (CIGB-66) is being carried out in Santiago de Cuba, Granma, and Guantánamo, provinces in the extreme southeast of Cuba, with 48,000 participants between 19 and 80 years of age, who will receive three doses of the injectable in one month.

Soberana 02 also began phase III clinical trials in early March with a sample of 44,000 subjects belonging to eight municipalities of Havana. Simultaneously, an intervention study is being developed with this vaccine candidate for population segments at a higher risk of infection, which has 150,000 volunteers in the capital.

The IFV director, Vicente Vérez, assured that this vaccine candidate is progressing very well, confirming its safety.

Soberana 01, Soberana Plus, and Mambisa complete the country's strategy of having several COVID-19 vaccine candidates. Simultaneously, the developers of these projects assure that in July and August, 70 percent of Cuba's population, almost six million people, could be immunized against the disease.