Cuba will begin the third phase of its clinical trial next week with two proprietary vaccines against the novel coronavirus and could become the first country in Latin America to receive a tested and nationally manufactured immunizer, executives and scientists announced Thursday.
Given the good results of the first two phases and in parallel, its most advanced vaccine is already being produced on an industrial scale, Sovereign 02, of which Cuba could produce 110 million doses by 2021, another of which would have been added indefinite call number Abdallah.
“The Cuban bet is to have highly effective vaccines, the second bet is that they are very safe vaccines, the third is that they don’t have the limitation on the number of doses that can be administered, you can re-immunize after six months. for the new mutations, ”said director of the Finlay Institute, Vicente Vérez, to a group of journalists on a tour of the production sites.
Cuba also has two other vaccines under investigation, Mambisa and Soberana 01. They do not work on live viruses, but on parts of them, which are not only safer, but also allow different vaccinations and a less strict cold chain.
Sovereign 01 and 02 are based on the processing of higher mammalian cells and were developed by Finlay and the Center for Molecular Immunology (CIM). Abdalá and Mambisa – for intranasal use – do that from yeasts processed by the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), the experts said.
“There are two products – the Abdalá and the Mambisa on the one hand and the Soberanas on the other – with different technologies serving the same purpose,” explained CIGB Production Director Jorge Luis Vega to The Associated Press.
Cuba formed a major scientific pool in the 1980s that researches and produces many of the drugs it needs for its domestic market, including 80% of the vaccines in the national health program, which is free.
We recommend:
The experts indicated that given the urgency of the spread of the new coronavirus, the island’s plan was based on analyzing a series of candidates at once.
“Faced with a pandemic situation, you have to proceed with different strategies,” said Marta Ayala, director of the CIGB, noting that generally research on a vaccine can take 10 years and this time the process had to be carried out in eight months. .
The scientists indicated that the results of the first two phases – which focus on product safety – were published in two articles on special pages for their colleagues to review, as determined by the international community of specialists against COVID-19.
The third phase of the Sovereign and the Abdalá will begin between March 3-8, Eduardo Ojito, director of the CIM, said that the people on the island will be receiving doses.
At this stage it will also be analyzed whether it is necessary to administer a third dose to reactivate the vaccine or whether it is possible to combine Sovereign 02 with another to obtain longer term immunity.
Eduardo Martínez, director of BioCubafarma, the state-owned company that markets Cuban medicines, acknowledged that the world is hungry for vaccines and the island is negotiating with a number of countries, but declined to provide further details.
Cuba has experienced a COVID-19 outbreak since commercial flights resumed in November, so the government has implemented new isolation measures. So far, there have been more than 47,000 cases of the novel coronavirus and nearly 400 deaths on the island.