CubaPLUS Magazine

Cuba's Abdala vaccine candidate demonstrated its safety and immunogenicity against Covid-19, leaders of the study highlighted on Tuesday.

On Twitter, the president of the Business Group of Biotechnological and Pharmaceutical Industries (BioCubaFarma), Eduardo Martinez, detailed that an independent committee for the data analysis of the clinical trial verified those results.

Developed by the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), Abdala began on December 2nd the first phase of the clinical study with 200 volunteers at the Saturnino Lora Hospital, in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba.

Such phase, which concludes on February 16, also involves over 40 healthcare professionals, including doctors, nurses and lab tecnicians.

Abdala is applied intramuscularly and is supervised by specialized organizations, such as the National Regulatory Center for Medicines and Medical Equipment.

The CIGB is working in unison on another candidate against Covid-19, Mambisa, designed for nasopharyngeal use. Both products have completed the short test cycle, comprising days zero, 14 and 28, and after sample processing will move on to a longer assessment period of zero, 28 and 56 days.

The first indications confirm the safety of the two molecules, with mild adverse effects, assured recently to Prensa Latina, Dr. Miladys Limonta, manager of the Covid-19 vaccine project of that institution.

With those proposals of the CIGB and other projects of the Finlay Vaccine Institute, Soberana 01 and 02, Cuba completes four vaccine candidates to fight against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which causes the disease.

Due to the positive results shown by those products, Cuba plans to start the emergency use of some of them in March for the immunization of vulnerable people.

BioCubaFarma's president also pointed out that they are working to successfully achieve 'more than one vaccine' for different populations.