Cuba has now produced all the vaccine doses it needs to fully vaccinate its population by the end of this year, announced the the president of the BioCubaFarma biotechnology firm Eduardo Martinez. The daily Granma reported on Sept. 22 his remarks that Cuba’s vaccine production strategy had worked. “Based on our abilities, we were able to develop more than one vaccine, and we produced the doses we needed in record time, under difficult conditions.” The country’s biotechnology firms, including the Finley Vaccine Institute, the Center for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, the Molecular Immunology Center, and the National Center for Biological Products, among others, joined forces to produce the Soberana 1, Soberana 2, Abdala, and Soberana Plus vaccines.
To date, Cuba has vaccinated almost 40% of its population, and also recently announced that it had vaccinated 1.6 million children and adolescents with their first dose of Soberana 2, of whom 900,000 were children between the ages of 2 and 11. Dr. Vicente Verez Bencomo, director of the Finley Institute, reported to Granma that clinical trials of the vaccine in children had gone very well, that just two doses produced better results than in adults. He stressed, however, that the vaccine was specifically designed for children.
Cuba has begun the process of getting the World Health Organization’s approval for its vaccines, but has already signed contracts and sent the Abdala vaccine to Iran, Venezuela, and Vietnam. Talks with Argentina on purchase of the vaccine “are advanced,” Granma reported. And many other developing nations have indicated interest in obtaining the vaccines.
