Country approved Cuban coronavirus vaccine Abdala

“The Ministry of Health approved the Abdala vaccine based on the country’s urgent need to fight Covid-19“, the government said in a statement, in which it also predicted that Cuba would send a large number of doses to the country and transfer the technology needed to develop the drug also locally.

Cuba is the only Latin American country to have fully developed its own vaccine and Abdala is not the only oneThere’s also Sovereign 02, which was already approved for emergency use in Iran in July, and Soberana Plus.

What is known

According to Cuban scientific reports, the Abdala vaccine has 92.2% efficacy against the onset of disease symptoms with three doses appliedThus, several countries in the region, including Argentina, have already expressed their interest.

The vaccine was developed by scientists from the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) of Cuba and takes its name from a dramatic poem written in his youth by the writer and national hero José Martí, originally published in 1869.

Sovereign 02 and Abdala both used a technology known as a “subunit vaccine” in which proteins derived from the virus “conjugated” to other carrier proteins are used to trigger an immune response.

In the case of the first, they bind the virus antigen to tetanus toxoid and aluminum hydroxide and in the second, they use a culture in yeast cells, according to Cuban health authorities.