Cuba begins the last phase of testing its vaccine, 'Soberana 02'
Cuba's Centro de Control Estatal de Medicamentos, Equipos y Dispositivos Médicos (CEMED) has authorised the third phase of clinical trials for the 'Soberana 02' vaccine. In this last step before distribution, more than 44,000 people between 18 and 80 years of age, all of them from Havana, will be vaccinated.
The vaccine produced by the pharmaceutical company BioCubaFarma will have to demonstrate its efficacy and safety in order to be able to sell the millions of doses that it began to manufacture on a large scale in February, without knowing at the time whether it will be approved, and everything points to the fact that it will be.
BioCubaFarma expects to be able to produce around 100 million doses for 11 million inhabitants in Cuba, as many will be exported and made available to other countries. Rolando Pérez Rodríguez, director of the company, explained: "We will be able to vaccinate the entire population before the end of the year, but we will also have the production capacity to offer it to other countries that demand it". He added the importance of joining forces and demonstrating the help that Cuba can offer to the entire international community: "It is about sharing with the world what we are, the response that Cuba can give to the problem of the pandemic". There are already countries that have contacted the Cuban government to acquire the vaccine as soon as it becomes available, such as Vietnam, Iran and Venezuela, with which they have agreements, as well as India and Pakistan, according to the director of the Finlay Vaccine Institute, Vicente Vérez.
This new vaccine works in a very similar way to the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. Two doses are given, just like those, and Sovereign 02 can be stored at a temperature of between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius. However, this vaccine is not the only one currently being developed in Cuba. Soberana 01 and Soberana 01A are also in the testing phase, although they are going somewhat more slowly. Soberana 01 has already completed phase 1 clinical trials and results are expected in the next few days. The 01A has not yet begun its first phase of testing, which is expected to begin between March and next year.
Cuba's Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology is developing two other vaccines. Abdala is the most advanced of the two, and is about to enter phase III testing, which is expected to involve just over 85,000 volunteers. And Mambisa is the one that differs from all the others in that it is the only one that would be introduced intranasally. In addition, it contains a small part of the coronavirus spike protein added to the hepatitis B virus protein, which stimulates the immune system, according to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) registry of vaccine candidates.
Cuba's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic is not just about vaccines. Since March last year, when the first infections began to appear, they have been trying to obtain lung ventilators from the Swiss companies IMT Medial AG and Acutronic, but when they were acquired by the US company Vyaire Medical Inc, both cancelled the commercial agreements they had in place, due to the sanctions that Washington has maintained for 60 years and which, in recent years, far from being reduced, have been intensifying.
In view of the trade complications, Cuba launched a strategy to develop its own lung ventilators. These are being designed by the Grupo de la Industria Electrónica, la Informática, la Automatización y las Comunicaciones de Cuba (Gelect), which will submit prototypes for evaluation to CEMED.
Despite the efforts being made by the country led by Miguel Díaz Canel, the infection figures are not very encouraging. February was the worst month in terms of the number of people infected (15,536) and deaths (108). These are the highest figures recorded since the first infection was reported in March last year.
