By Rubén G. Abelenda (*)
The Cuban Soberana 01 vaccine candidate against Covid-19 is a dream today for the people of the largest of the Antilles that will come true when they first receive the vaccine as the clinical trials are completed on January of the coming year.
In recent statements to the press, Vicente Vérez, director of the prestigious Cuban Finlay Institute (IFV), in charge of the drug project, said that it will not be the first in the world, but it will cover the entire population of his country.
He expressed that Soberana 01, until now the only vaccine against Covid-19 designed in Latin America and the Caribbean, is a dream for his compatriots.
The new corona virus preventive drug, developed by (IFV), entered its phase I clinical trials in humans, after showing positive results in the preclinical stage.
A first group made up of 20 individuals aged 19 to 59 years was already vaccinated a week ago to assess the safety of the drug and, according to the researchers, all are in good health.
The only adverse effect was mild pain at the injection site, a common side event for all vaccines, according to the same specialists.
Once its phase I has concluded, it will enter the next stage, on September 11th, with a sample size of 676 volunteers, including 40 from the initial period.
The research, which in all its stages should conclude on January 2021, and available to the population on February, joins the group of 30 that at the international level already received authorization from the World Health Organization (WHO) to advance in the human clinical trial.
In the midst of the tightening blockade that the United States imposes on Cuba, the IFV is carrying out four projects as candidates for a specific vaccine against the disease that currently plagues the entire planet.
The experienced and renowned Cuban scientists work intensely and with the professionalism that characterizes them in the quest to finally end the pandemic that is killing many people, as does the economic, commercial and financial siege that Washington is intensifying on the largest of the Antilles, despite the complex international situation generated by Covid-19.
And of course, if for the Caribbean nation and many countries and peoples of the world Sovereign 01 is a dream, for the US rulers it is a nightmare because it already constitutes another setback for their aggressive policy of blocking the island.
(*) Ambassador of Cuba in the Gambia
"An Island on a Continent" 