"An Island on a Continent"

– Cuba has significant experience in the production of vaccines, which have received wide international recognition.

Havana, Jan 6 – (Agencies) Cuba aspires to start vaccination against Covid-19 in the first quarter of this year 2021, informed Eduardo Martínez, president of the Biocubafarma business group, an entity that brings together a large part of the biopharmaceutical industry Cuban.

In an interview with the national television of the Caribbean nation, the expert advanced the possibility for the year just started of the total immunization of the country’s population, with four vaccine candidates in clinical trials.

Martínez described the results of the projects developed by the largest of the Antilles as very positive, with better response levels than those reported by others. For this, he explained, an emergency use already requested by other countries is necessary in the midst of the emergency caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

«We aspire to have an emergency use to start vaccinating all risk personnel; doctors in the red line, health personnel, and our country is a country of tourism, so we plan to vaccinate the personnel of this activity «, he asserted.

«Some of these have been the first of their kind worldwide, recognized by the international scientific community,» he said.

Already in previous days, Dr. Vicente Vérez Bencomo, general director of the Finlay Vaccine Institute, the entity in charge of the development of the vaccine candidates Soberana 01 and Soberana 02, had assured that Cuba could have vaccinated its entire population for the first semester of 2021.

It is a projection that depends on the completion of phase three of both trials, as well as the permits being obtained. However, Vérez Bencomo explained that both candidates respond satisfactorily.

«Soberana 02 specifically, due to its characteristics, has shown an early immune response (at 14 days), which has allowed it to be in Phase 2 of the clinical trial more quickly,» explained the scientific authority.

It has been a process that has not been exempt from the impact of the Washington blockade. When starting the processes of scaling up the production of the vaccine or even producing them, the Caribbean nation faced the refusal of companies due to the regulations imposed by the United States.

«They have refused to send us because they are studying 10 percent of the US component, they have told us they have received pressure. We cannot even reveal the names of the companies,» denounced the director of Biocubafarma.