Vaccines are a rare commodity and their distribution around the world is highly uneven. In that context, Cuba, a country isolated by the blockade promoted by the United States for decades, thanks to its enormous state scientific development achieved that two of its vaccines, Soberana 02 and Abdala, are the first to reach phase three in Latin America. The Argentine government is attentive and looks favorably upon this news and for that reason the Minister of Health, Carla Vizzotti, Y the presidential adviser, Cecilia Nicolini, will be on the island in the next few days to know details of the advance of vaccines and carry out conversations in view of the possible collaboration in the production chain of the same between the two countries. The Cuban scale will be the second: in Mexico, first destination, the civil servants they will closely follow the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine release process produced jointly in Argentina.
“He told me about the difficulties he has to work and I offered him to work together so that all of Latin America can have access to a vaccine,” President Alberto Fernández had pointed out when he discussed Cuban vaccines with the island’s president, Miguel Díaz- Canel. That task would be entrusted to Nicolini and Vizzotti. “Both with Mexico and with the island, experiences will be exchanged on the vaccination process against COVID-19 and access to immunizations,” they remarked from the portfolio.
The Minister and the presidential advisor traveled to Mexico where they will follow up, together with the authorities of that country, on the production and release of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. During their stay in the country chaired by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, they will participate in meetings with local health authorities, personnel from the scientific community and those responsible for the regulatory agency called the Federal Commission for Protection Against Sanitary Risks (COFEPRIS). This Monday, meanwhile, 843 thousand doses of AstraZeneca from the United States will arrive in the country and in these days another 2 million will arrive from this laboratory whose active element was manufactured in Garín, Province of Buenos Aires.
According to sources from the Ministry of Health, the Argentine government will propose something fundamental at this time for the region: “to work on a Latin American platform for preparation and response in public health, addressing the challenges of the pandemic and the health sector in general.” In Cuba, meanwhile, Nicolini and Vizzotti will hold meetings with their Cuban counterparts to analyze the situation of the pandemic in the region and “exchange good practices in primary care services and continue to strengthen the strategic relations of cooperation and friendship between both nations.” reported from the portfolio.
With the Abdala vaccine, which is produced entirely on Cuban soil, about 1,115,335 people have already begun to be vaccinated on the island – while the drug is going through the last phase of clinical trials and their corresponding evaluation of results. Sovereign 02, meanwhile, this week finished its third phase of trials that had begun at the end of April.
Sovereign 02 and Abdala are just two of the vaccines that are being manufactured in Cuba. In total there are five antidotes that are under investigation. The rest are the Soberana 01, the Soberana Plus and the Mambisa. These are added to a sixth that is also being analyzed and that is produced together with Chinese scientists, called Pan-Corona. Abdala and Mambisa are designed by the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology and the three Sovereigns by the Finlay Vaccine Institute.
The inoculation process of Sovereign 02, like that of Abdala, consists of three doses and, according to the Cuban regulatory entity – equivalent to Anmat – it is likely that in the short term they will grant approval for the use of emergence, initially, of Sovereign 02.
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