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Cuba: while the world competes for vaccines, the island manufactures its own

2021-03-04T11:40:45.554Z


Starting in March, two of the four candidate vaccines developed on the island will begin their third and final test, the Cuban government announced. | Latin America | CNN


Cuba, very close to producing its own vaccine 3:18

(CNN) -

Cuba may be on the verge of a breakthrough in the coronavirus vaccine and at the exact moment, as deaths and cases increase on the communist island.

Starting in March, two of the four candidate vaccines developed on the island will begin their third and final test, the Cuban government announced.

While other developing countries compete with richer nations for a limited supply of doses, Cuba has bet everything to produce its own vaccines, both an exercise of national pride and a response to a public health crisis.

  • Finlay Vaccine Institute of Cuba announces phase 3 of trials of the Sovereign 02 vaccine against covid-19

Two of the vaccines are called Sovereign.

The remaining two are called Abdala, the name of a poem written by Cuban revolutionary icon José Martí, and Mambisa, in reference to the Cuban guerrillas who waged a bloody war for freedom against the Spanish.

Cuban scientists will begin final trials for their Soberana-02 and Abdala vaccines this month, as the island experiences a surge in new cases.

For much of 2020, Cuba was able to keep the spread of the pandemic in check, but a failed reopening to international travelers in December led to an increase in cases.

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February has been the deadliest month to date for the Caribbean nation, with 108 deaths and 7642 new cases, according to statistics from the Cuban government.

Cuban scientists say they hope their vaccines will be a big game changer, not only against the increasing number of COVID-19 cases, but also in the face of the disastrous impacts of the pandemic on their economy.

Technician Heydi Contreras works at the Finlay Institute's vaccine production plant in Havana, on January 20, 2021.

"The main objective of this clinical trial is to show the clinical efficacy of our candidate vaccine," said Dagmar García Rivera, a researcher at the government-run Finlay Vaccine Institute.

"After that we could be in a position to start mass vaccination in Cuba and some other countries in the world."

With the third trial of Soberana-02, Cuban doctors say, from March they will vaccinate 44,000 participants of the trial in Cuba.

The researchers told CNN that they have already manufactured more than 300,000 doses of that vaccine and will increase production in the expectation that trials will show that it is safe and effective.

  • Cuba and Iran cooperate to test the island's covid-19 vaccine, called Soberana 02

Abroad, Iran has already started widespread testing of Sovereign-02 and Mexico is in talks with Cuba to begin trials soon.

Suriname and Ghana are reportedly interested in purchasing Cuban vaccines when ready.

Rafael Hernández, 73, participated in the second trial of the vaccine and said the side effects were mild.

"Before applying the first dose, the doctor told me that they had not registered, among the hundreds of vaccinated patients, a single adverse reaction, other than mild pain, high temperature, stiffness in the vaccinated arm, fever or mild discomfort", Hernandez told CNN.

Cuba's most proven candidate vaccine, Soberana 02, is a conjugate vaccine that carries part of the spike protein of the virus, attaching it to human cells.

Researchers will not know how effective the vaccine is until they complete Phase 3 trials and are currently studying whether vaccination with Sovereign 02 will require patients to be given three doses of the vaccine.

«We need many vaccines to vaccinate 11 million Cubans.

If we estimate that Cubans will need one or two or three doses, we are estimating that Cuba will need 30 million doses, ”said Dr. Tania Crombet Ramos, director of the government-run Center for Molecular Immunology in Havana.

Crombet said he was confident that Cuba would end up with more than one approved vaccine, giving the island greater flexibility to fight the pandemic.

"I think in the end we could implement what we call 'priming and boosting'," he said, "which is to use some vaccines for the first dose and for booster and reimmunization.

In addition to completing its vaccine trials, Cuba still needs to demonstrate that it can handle the massive increase in production that will be required to manufacture tens of millions of doses.

Cuba and Iran work on covid-19 vaccine 3:12

This would not be a small feat for any country, but it is particularly daunting for an island where the economy has been hit by the pandemic and increased US sanctions under the Trump administration.

Today, many Cubans are struggling to find basic pain relievers and antibiotics, much less a cutting-edge vaccine.

However, Cuban health officials have said they hope to vaccinate the entire island population by the end of the year and could even sell or donate additional doses abroad or even market 'vaccination vacations' to help the tourism industry Cuba recovers.

"We have a productive capacity for millions of doses of the vaccine," Garcia said.

«Probably more of the vaccines that Cuba needs.

At some point we will have some vaccines or some level of doses available for other countries in the world.

Dr. José Moya, a Havana-based Peruvian health expert who works for the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization, said he was encouraged that Cuban vaccine researchers were following the protocols. international and providing updates on their progress.

"First, we are following these results carefully because the Cuban population will benefit directly from their candidate vaccines and this at some point could control transmission in the country," said Moya.

"The fact that Cuba has four candidate vaccines is very good news, not only for Cuba but for the Caribbean and Latin America."

Coronavirus vaccine

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2021-03-04

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