Abdala, a vaccine candidate from the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB, in Spanish), shows 92.28 percent efficacy after three jabs, the island’s Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries Business Group (BioCubaFarma) published on Twitter.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel praised the scientists of CIGB and the Finlay Vaccine Institute for their outstanding work in developing and producing Soberana 02 and Abdala.
‘Striken by two pandemics (#Covid19 and #USBlockade), our scientists from Finlay and CIGB have overcome all hurdles, and have gifted the Cuban people with two very effective vaccines’, the Head of State wrote in Twitter.
BioCubaFarma tweeted that ‘Cuba has two vaccines that meet the minimum clinical efficacy requirements required by the World Health Organization (WHO)’.
Two days earlier, the Finlay Vaccine Institute that developed Soberana 02 revealed that this candidate has 62 percent efficacy after two doses. After a third shot, its efficacy rises substantially, its developers hope. Studies are ongoing.
The phase III clinical trial of Abdala began last March 22 in Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo and Granma provinces with the participation of 48,290 people.
Once the process concluded, a follow-up assessment was done to check on the vaccine candidate efficacy, an evaluation that began on May 3, said recently Dr. Verena Muzio, CIGB’s director of Clinical Research.
Abdala is also part of intervention studies in people at higher risk, among them, health personnel and workers of the BioCubaFarma business group, in several provinces of the country.
Likewise, the intervention is carried out in vulnerable territories and groups in the Cuban capital and several other provinces, a process in which nearly 5 million doses of Abdala and Soberana 02 have been administered so far.
In recent days, CIGB researchers stated that they are in the process of designing clinical studies in pediatric populations with Abdala. Phase I trial con children began last week with Soberana 02.
The first Latin American country to present its own candidate against Covid-19, Cuba currently has five projects of this type in different research phases. In addition to the two mentioned above, there are Mambisa, also from CIGB, as well as Soberana 1 and Soberana Plus, from the Finlay Institute.
mh/msm/cdg
