Cuban vaccines with a wide global presence

Since The New York Times envisioned in February 2021 that Cuba was approaching a scientific achievement, a political war began that implied, in this case, an attack on its vaccine candidates, now several converted into vaccines, also as part of the pharmaceutical competition.

At that time, the prestigious United States newspaper still doubted that in the midst of the global economic crisis, particularly aggravated in the Caribbean island by the impact of the sanctions, the scientific milestone that the Cuban government announced, which would mean a political victory and an open door to international relations.

“The island’s biotechnological sector is well developed” – assured The New York Times − Cuba manufactures eight of the 12 vaccines administered to children on the island and exports vaccines to more than 30 countries. According to Gail Reed, editor of MEDICC Review, Cuba “is a biotech monster.”

Today Cuba has a presence with its vaccines in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.

Which countries have Cuban vaccines against Covid-19 reached?

Despite the fact that in Cuban internationalist practice political differences have never mediated, it was obvious that, in the midst of a war between pharmaceutical companies to prevail in a scenario of high demand, the main allies of the Cuban government would be the first to acquire vaccines from the largest of the Antilles.

Vietnam

On September 20, 2021, the Vietnamese government issued Resolution 109/NQ-CP authorizing the purchase of 10 million doses of the Abdala vaccine produced by the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) of Cuba. The Vietnamese Ministry of Health assured that it was a safe, quality and effective treatment.

Days later, the official website of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the arrival on Vietnamese soil of the first batch of the Abdala vaccine at the Noi Bai international airport in the city of Hanoi, which included 150,000 doses as a donation from Cuba. to the Asian country.

Thus international media echoed the news: “Vietnam, the first country in the world to approve the use of the Cuban vaccine” (owner of Europa Press). From that moment on, several media outlets saw the certification and recommendation of Cuban vaccines by the World Health Organization (WHO) as possible; something that until now has not happened despite having submitted all the documentation.

Venezuela

The AP news agency through its correspondent in Havana, Andrea Rodríguez, reported that, in addition to Vietnam, a batch of Abdala vaccines would arrive in Venezuela, however, it specified that it was not possible to determine the number of doses sent at that time.

In the same way, AP detailed that according to the results obtained by the Cuban scientists, Abdala showed an effectiveness of 92.28% and the combination of two doses of Soberana 02 with a third of Soberana Plus reached 91.2%.

In November 2021, it was reported through the CIGB Twitter account that more than one and a half million Abdala vaccines were delivered to Venezuela, which added up to almost 7,000,000 doses delivered to the South American nation.

Keep in mind that Venezuela began to vaccinate its population with Abdala when it was still a vaccine candidate and had not been recognized by the Cuban regulatory agency (Cedmed) as a vaccine, that is, Venezuela was also the scene of the massive tests that scientists performed to establish efficacy.

In addition, on January 31, 2022, the multinational agency Telesur reported a shipment with one million doses of the Cuban Soberana Plus vaccine, produced by the Finlay Vaccine Institute and projected for people convalescent from the disease in Venezuela.

Nicaragua

Similarly, in October of the same year, the trading company BioCubaFarma announced that the health regulation authority of the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health (Minsa) had issued the emergency use certification for the Cuban Soberana and Abdala vaccines. That same month, the Central American country received one million 200 thousand doses of Cuban vaccines, which would be applied to children and adolescents between 2 and 17 years of age.

Dr. Martha Reyes, Minister of Health of Nicaragua, received the cargo at the Augusto César Sandino International Airport, the first of three planned shipments, which would reach the figure of 7,000,000 agreed doses.

Iran

In May 2022, the inauguration in Iran of a production plant called PastoCorona was announced, which would receive a technology transfer from Soberana02. In this way, Iran became the first country in the world to produce one of the Cuban vaccines against Covid-19 and would market Soberana02 from the Finlay Institute of Vaccines, as PastuCovac, in the Persian country.

According to the Prensa Latina agency, the event demonstrated the implementation of the Cuban scientific results made available for the health and social well-being of the countries of the world.

The president of the Cuban company BioCubaFarma, Eduardo Martínez, expressed, for his part, that The inauguration of the plant in Iran consolidated the scientific collaboration and the international insertion of the company in question.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines

In the Caribbean community, the first country to receive Cuban vaccines was Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, a country that barely had 30% of the population vaccinated with one dose and 23% with a complete scheme. The St. Vicent Times newspaper reported at the end of 2021 that the Abdala vaccine was added to Sputnik, AstraZéneca and Pfizer already in application in that nation.

Days before, at the XX Cumbre del Alba, Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of this nation, expressed that he wanted to be vaccinated with Abdala and added: “God and the Cuban vaccine will save us from Covid-19”.

Syria

Beginning in 2022, a donation of 240,000 doses of vaccines left Cuba for Syria: “The vaccines developed by Cuban science, the first in Latin America, constitute a modest contribution to confronting the pandemic worldwide that fills us with satisfaction to be able to share with the brother Syrian people.”expressed the Vice Minister of Foreign Trade of Cuba, Ana Teresita González.

The AP agency highlighted that the Syrian ambassador Idris Mayya thanked the Cuban gesture for his part and detailed that, although it had not yet been endorsed by the United Nations Organization, its emergency use had already been approved in countries such as Venezuela, Nicaragua, Vietnam and Iran.

Mexico

Mexico joined at the end of 2022, as part of the National Vaccination Strategy. Since the Federal Commission for the Protection of Health Risks (Cofepris) approved the use of the Abdala vaccine, a campaign of political overtones was unleashed by the Mexican ultra-right to reduce public confidence in the Cuban vaccine: media press and activists in social networks promoted a boycott.

The first batch with more than 4,000,000 vaccines arrived at the end of November and a month later the Biological and Reactive Laboratories of Mexico (Birmex) announced through their social networks that the second batch with 4.9 million Cuban vaccines.

In the midst of criticism from a sector in Mexico, scientists such as Hugo López-Gatell assured the effectiveness of the treatment. His statement was issued through Forbes Mexico: “The evidence on the robustness, efficacy, safety, in this case the population effectiveness of the Abdala vaccine is extremely consistent (…) It uses a very proven and innovative technology at the time because it is very stable. Cuba also uses this design model for other vaccines and is one of the countries with the highest vaccination capacities and multiple public health programs.”

However, the attacks on the Cuban vaccine are frequently reproduced by social and political actors who ensure that the The Government of Mexico must invest in bivalent vaccines, as is the case with Pfizer, and discard the purchased Abdala doses.

A recent Sputnik article points out that of the more than 400,000 doses that were distributed in the health centers of Mexico City, by January 26 of this year only a little more than 116,000 had been administered, lor representing 29% of available vaccines. However, this political stubbornness of the Mexican far-right had already been experienced at other times with the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and China’s CanSino.

As cited in this article, it is a politicization of science without support, as recognized by the Mexican doctor Mauricio Rodríguez, member of the University Commission for the attention to the coronavirus emergency (UNAM), who affirms in said text: “Anyone who put it on a scale and make Mexico and Cuba compete in terms of vaccines, because Mexico loses because Cuba has been producing its own vaccines for more than 30 years and exporting vaccines to UNICEF, PAHO and many other countries”.

Several scientific articles validate the technology with which Cuba has developed its vaccine, such as the one published in The Lancet magazine, where it is stated that Abdala managed to obtain high standards of effectiveness in preventing death, something that is demonstrated by the numbers of deaths in Cuba from Covid -19 during the year 2022.

In summary, according to a source within the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, the Abdala vaccine has traveled to 6 countries: Vietnam, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Syria and Mexico. For his part, Yury Valdés Balbín, deputy director of the Finlay Vaccine Institute, points out that the Soberana 02 and Soberana Plus vaccines have reached Iran, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Belarus, Syria and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

There is no greater proof of the effectiveness of Cuban vaccines than the current numbers of infections and deaths from Covid-19 on the island: In this year 2023, until February 16, there were only 517 infections in Cuba with an average of 11.2 per day and no person had died of Covid-19, while various pandemic peaks continue to take place in various countries around the world.

(Taken from elciudadano.com)