Cuba will begin the third phase of the clinical trial of two of its own vaccines against the new coronavirus next week and could become the first country in Latin America to obtain a proven and nationally manufactured immunizer, executives announced on Thursday. scientists.
Given the good results of the first two phases and in parallel, the most advanced vaccine of theirs, Sobirana 02, is already being produced on an industrial scale, of which Cuba would have the capacity to manufacture 110 million doses in 2021. they would add another undetermined number of the so-called Abdullah.
“The Cuban bet is to have very effective vaccines, the second bet is that they are very safe vaccines, the third is that they do not have the limitation of number of doses that can be applied, you can re-immunize at six months if necessary, this for new mutations, ”Finlay Institute director Vicente Vérez told a group of reporters during a tour of the production plants.
Cuba also has two other vaccines under study, Mambisa and Sobirana 01. None work from live viruses but parts of them, which in addition to being safer allows several inoculations and a not so strict cold chain.
Sovereigns 01 and 02 are based on the processing of higher mammalian cells and were developed by Finlay and the Center for Molecular Immunology (CIM). Abdul·là and Mambisa -in intranasal application- do so from yeasts processed by the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), experts said.
“These are two products – Abdul·là and Mambisa on the one hand and Sobiranes on the other – with different technologies for the same purpose,” CIGB production director Jorge Luis Vega told AP.
Cuba has a major state scientific pole formed in the 1980s that researches and produces many of the drugs it needs for its domestic market, including 80% of the vaccines in its national health program that are free.
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Experts indicated that in the face of the urgency for the spread of the new coronavirus, the island’s plan was based on analyzing a set of candidates at once.
“In the face of a pandemic situation you have to move forward with various strategies,” said Marta Ayala, director of the CIGB, noting that the overall search for a vaccine can take 10 years and this time the process had to be completed 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 peers to review as established by the international community of specialists. in front of the COVID-19.
The third phase of the Sovereign and Abdullah will begin between March 3 and 8, said Eduardo Ojito, director of CIM, which means that people on the island will begin receiving doses.
At this stage it will also be analyzed whether a third dose needs to be applied 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 there is an appetite for vaccines in the world and the island is negotiating with some countries, but declined to give further details.
Cuba has been experiencing a resurgence of COVID-19 since commercial flights resumed in November, so the government has implemented new containment measures. To date, more than 47,000 cases of the new coronavirus and nearly 400 deaths have occurred on the island.