Cuba to Deliver 1 Million COVID-19 Vaccine Doses by April

Cuba's biopharmaceutical authorities on Thursday announced that its country could deliver one million doses of the Soberana 02 COVID-19 vaccine by late April.

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"Cuba will be one of the first nations to immunize its entire population," said Eduardo Martinez, president of BioCubaFarma, a state company gathering 21 research centers and 32 companies.

This Caribbean country, home to 11 million inhabitants, is currently developing four COVID-19 vaccines: Soberana 01, Soberana 02, Mambisa, and Abdala.

Besides being the only Latin American country developing vaccines, Cuba expects to produce 100 million doses of its Soberana 02 this year.

The local vaccines are developed by experts from the Finlay Institute of Vaccines (IFV) and the Center of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB).

Finlay's Soberana 01 and Soberana 02 have shown a high immune response against the virus during clinical studies, IFV Director-General Vicente Verez said.

"Soberana 02 is due to begin the third phase of clinical trials in March, involving some 42,600 participants," he added.

Abdala has started the second phase of clinical trials as Mambisa continues assessing the immune response generated from the doses administered to volunteers.

Cuban vaccines also assess the immune response to new COVID-19 strains found in South Africa, Britain, Brazil, and the U.S.