Havana, Jan 21 (Prensa Latina) Cuba creates the capacities to produce 100 million doses of the Sovereign 02 vaccine against Covid-19, announced the Finlay Institute, leader of the project.
In a press conference with the Foreign News agencies accredited in the Caribbean Island, the director of that entity, Vicente Vérez, confirmed that the objective is to satisfy the need of the country and also of other nations interested in the injectable.
So far, said the expert, it will start with Sovereign 02 and there are already countries such as Vietnam, Iran, Venezuela, Pakistan and India willing to acquire it.
He also stressed that the application in Cuba will be totally free and the objective is to immunize the entire population this year.
‘Cuba’s strategy of commercializing the vaccine has a combination of humanity and global health impact. We are not a multinational company where the financial objective is the number one reason, our goal is to create more health, ‘said Vérez.
In addition, a pediatric population clinical trial is planned for February so that it can also be applied to children, he said.
This Monday, Soberana 02 began its expanded Phase II clinical trial that will be extended to 900 people between 19 and 80 years of age.
After the results in this stage, the third phase would be passed to evaluate the effectiveness. During this period, the health authorities plan to include 150,000 vulnerable people and residents in high-risk areas.
Recently, the president of the Business Group of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries, Eduardo Martínez, declared that, given the positive effects of Cuban Vaccines, the country could start the emergency use of some of its candidates in March.
Soberana 02 began its phase II of clinical trials on December 22 and thus became the first Latin American project to reach that stage.
The candidate is a conjugate vaccine, with two formulations, the second of which was highly effective in animals, as it elicited a very powerful immune response from the first week of its first dose.
Likewise, it induces a long-term memory in the immune response that, in addition to producing antibodies, makes them last.
The Finlay Vaccine Institute also developed the Sovereign 01 candidate, currently in phase I, and which will go on to II-III in February.
Cuba also has two other proposals against Covid-19, prepared at the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology: Abdala and Mambisa. Thelatterwill be applied nasal.
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