Italians Joining Cuban Booster's Clinical Trials Travel to Cuba

The joint research by the Finlay Vaccine Institute and the Amedeo di Savoia Hospital of the City of Turin Local Health Enterprise includes people immunized with vaccines authorized in the European Union, such as Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, who will receive the Cuban Soberana Plus as a third dose.

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The study participants will receive the booster dose of the drug produced by the Finlay Institute before returning to Italy. They will undergo blood tests to measure the specific antibody response, 28 days after vaccination, said a statement released by the Turin-based medical center.

Referring to the "prestigious bilateral collaboration between Italy and Cuba," the text highlighted the role played by the Agency for Cultural and Economic Exchange with Cuba (Aicec) and the Italian embassies in Havana and Cuba in Rome in the realization of the agreement.

"We're off to Cuba! We will be volunteering for the clinical study they are working on at @FinlayInstituto
 of #LaHabana and Amedeo di Savoia Hospital in Turin, for the administration of #SoberanaPlus as a booster to those who have already received other vaccines!"

Soberana Plus, he said, is the only vaccine developed in the world, from the beginning, as a product intended for the reinforcement and revaccination of people vaccinated with other preparations or to reinforce the immunization of people who have overcome the disease.

According to the director of the University Clinic of Infectious Diseases of the Amedeo di Savoia, Giovanni Di Perri, the preliminary results seem very promising on the production of neutralizing antibodies. It is expected that the successive stages of the research will advance rapidly, the statement said.