The Caribbean island of Cuba has distinguished itself above all for the great care it took in managing the epidemic, which resulted in very few infections and even fewer deaths (19,000 infections and 180 deaths), for sending doctors and nurses halfway around the world (including Lombardy) and for producing some vaccines independently.
Cuba will produce 100,000,000 doses of its vaccine against Covid-19 called Sovereign 02 this year, the director general of the Finlay Vaccine Institute, Vicente Vérez, reported on Wednesday.
During a meeting held with accredited foreign media in Havana, The Cuban scientist made an update on the clinical trials of the vaccine candidates Soberana 01 and Soberana 02.
The Finlay Institute and the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry company BIOCEN coordinate the large-scale production output of Soberana 02, for mass vaccination on the Island and share with those interested in acquiring it such as India, Vietnam, Iran and Venezuela, said the journalist Rolando Segura, correspondent for teleSUR, on his Twitter account.
Vérez explained that “we are reorganizing our productive capacities because we really have a lot of demand for the vaccine and we have to prepare.”
The scientist commented that the product is safe and detailed that it does not contain the live virus, but parts of it, so its application creates immunity without causing major reactions.
Vérez pointed out that “everyone deserves, without distinction, to be protected by effective and safe vaccines against any disease.”
The official stressed the “humanitarian” objective that Cuba has in this project, although he highlighted “the need for our system to support (financially) the production of vaccines and medicines for the country.”
“We are not a multinational company where return (financial) is the number one reason (…) we work the other way around, create more health and return is a consequence, it will never be the priority,” said Vérez.
The Finlay Institute has developed Soberana 02 and Soberana 01, while other Cuban biotechnology centers created two more vaccine candidates called Abdalá and Mambisa.
As of Wednesday, January 20th, Cuba has a total of 19,122 infected with Covid-19 and 180 deaths.
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