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Havana (AFP) – Cuba acknowledged this Thursday that it faces a “small delay” in the process to obtain the endorsement of the World Health Organization (WHO) for its Abdala vaccine against covid-19, due to a change in the production plant.
“The small delay that we have had in our strategy of presenting it to the WHO has been due to an internal element of ours, that we have decided to move to a new (production) plant and that this be the one that undergoes a process” of prequalification, Eduardo Martínez Díaz, director of the state-owned BioCubaFarma, manufacturer of the Abdala vaccine, said at a press conference.
Martínez highlighted that in March BioCubaFarma informed the WHO of the change in the place of production of Cuban vaccines from the current plants to a new complex built in Mariel, 50 kilometers west of Havana, inaugurated in December and still “in the process of adjustment And start-up”.
“That entails a delay in the documentation” and “it is one of the elements that has led us to slow down the process,” he added.
The official also confirmed that in March, Cuba presented Abdala’s file to the WHO.
To date, the Cuban regulatory authority has authorized the emergency use of the Abdala, Soberana 02 and Soberana Plus vaccines against covid-19, while local scientists advance in the final trials of two other candidates: Soberana 01 and Mambisa, this The latter is the only one that is administered by nasal spray.
Abdala and Soberana, in their two versions, are the ones that have had the greatest national use and in other countries such as Venezuela, Nicaragua and Vietnam.
Martínez specified that to date, the country has produced “more than 80 million” doses of its vaccines, of which “more than 70 million” have already been applied inside or outside the country.
The director offered details of the “BioHabana 2022” International Congress, which begins on Monday with the participation of 166 scientists and businessmen from 51 countries, including Nobel laureates in Medicine James Allison (2018) and Richard John Roberts (1993).
At the congress, BioCubaFarma scientists will present “the definitive results of the impact studies that Cuban vaccines have had in controlling the pandemic.”
Until this Thursday, Cuba has applied its anticovid vaccines to 89.07% of its 11.2 million inhabitants, with which it has managed to control the pandemic and the number of deaths.
Of 1,100,938 infected Cubans, 8,522 have died to date and Wednesday closed with only 329 new infections.
© 2022 AFP
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