PAHO and Cuba Dialogue on Recognition of COVID-19 Vaccines
Representatives of the BioCubaFarma business group and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) held a meeting last Thursday, September 2, in Havana, focused on the process of international recognition of Cuba’s COVID-19 vaccines.
“Today a working meeting was held in the headquarters of BioCubaFarma, with the representative of PAHO/WHO in CUBA, Dr. JosĂ© Moya. It took place in a favorable climate and its objective was the process of recognition of our COVID-19 vaccines by the WHO,” the Cuban entity announced on its official Twitter account.
Precisely on Wednesday, September 1, the president of the business group of the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries of Cuba (BioCubaFarma), Eduardo MartĂnez, denounced on Twitter a false information from CNN news network about the alleged refusal of the World Health Organization (WHO) to certify the country’s immunogens.
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The manager clarified that it was impossible for the international entity to deny the granting of any license, since Cuba had not requested the pertinent verifications to obtain those certificates.
Furthermore, WHO staff have not traveled to Cuba to verify or assess the efficacy and safety of the Soberana 02, Soberana Plus and Abdala vaccines.
MartĂnez specified the day before that after receiving authorization from the Cuban regulatory authority for emergency use of said products, he plans to begin exchanges with WHO for their recognition.
The Caribbean nation is advancing in mass vaccination against COVID-19 and 5,552,931 people have been given at least one dose; of them, 4,646,023 people have received the second dose and 3,916,641 have already received the complete scheme (three injections).
The results of the third phase of clinical trials with the schedule of the Soberana 02 vaccine (two doses) plus a booster of its counterpart Soberana Plus showed 91.2% efficacy in terms of the ability to prevent symptomatic disease; while for Abdala, with three doses, the figure was 92.28%.
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Cuban scientists and health personnel are also working on two other proposed vaccine candidates, in different phases of clinical trials: Soberana 01 and Mambisa, the latter, one of the seven in the world planned for nasal administration.
On several occasions, PAHO has recognized Cuba’s efforts in developing its own COVID-19 vaccines and their importance for the region.
Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, deputy director of PAHO, told Prensa Latina that Cuba’s development of vaccines makes it possible to reduce the vulnerability of the countries in the region to the pandemic.
Featured image: Representatives of Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) at the headquarters of BioCubaFarma in Havana, Cuba. Photo: Twitter/ @BioCubaFarma
