Cuba's Abdala Vaccine To Receive WHO Certification Soon

On Thursday, BioCubaFarma President Eduardo Martinez announced that the World Health Organization (WHO) would soon qualify the Abdala vaccine as a suitable product for COVID-19 emergency treatment.

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The quality, safety, and efficiency of the Abdala vaccine, which already received authorization from the Cuban Center for State Control of Medicines, Equipment, and Medical Devices (CECMED) for its domestic use, has been analyzed by WHO experts since September 2021.

“This procedure’s delay is not the responsibility of the WHO experts but of Cuban health authorities, who have prioritized mass vaccine production to develop the national immunization campaign,” Martinez explained.

The Abdala vaccine production took place in non-specialized manufacturing plants before authorities built a biotechnology industrial complex of vaccines and drugs against COVID-19 in the Mariel municipality in November 2021.

“The change in the production place led to delays in the documentation delivery to WHO since our scientists had had to re-adapt this vaccine’s dossiers to reflect the new industrial complex’s characteristics,” the BioCubaFarma President stressed.

Nevertheless, he recalled that prioritizing vaccine production has been a successful strategy to fight the pandemic since it has enabled over 94 percent of the population to immunize.

“The Abdala vaccine has already been endorsed by the international scientific community for the excellent results of our vaccination campaign. However, we keep our interest in obtaining the WHO certification to facilitate this product’s entry into other countries’ markets once the needs of the Island are met,” Martinez stressed.