Sovereign 02: Cuba prepares one hundred million doses of …

As the World Health Organization (WHO) leads a crusade to denounce the “moral failure” of concentrating the distribution of covid-19 vaccines among the richest countries, Cuba is moving towards the phase 3 of his vaccine Sovereign 02 and is preparing to produce a hundred million doses.

“The Cuban vaccine marketing strategy has a combination of humanity and global health impact. We are not a multinational, whose financial goal is the main reason. Our goal is to create more health,” said the general manager Finlay Vaccine Institute, Vicente Vérez Bencomo, on confirmation of Cuban vaccine progress.

For his part, the WHO representative on the island, José Moya, said he was “optimistic” about the advance of Sovereign 02 and stressed that “Cuba was the first candidate from Latin America and the Caribbean to place its vaccine in clinical phase“The Cuban dose has already been prequalified by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to enter the Rotary fund, which will facilitate access to timely vaccines and at reasonable prices.

Soberana 02 began its expanded Phase II clinical trial this week, which will expand to 900 people aged 19 to 80, according to the journal. Granma, and an agreement between the Finlay Institute and the Pasteur Institute of Iran to test phase 3.

Vérez Bencomo stressed that the production of one hundred million doses will meet the needs of the country and also of other interested nations such as Vietnam, Iran, Venezuela, Pakistan and India. In this sense, the vice-president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, assured that Sovereign 2 “will be the ALBA vaccine”, referring to the alliance made up of Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua.

“The laboratories have already reserved almost all of their production for the year and it is mainly the wealthier countries that have bought it, so these Cuban vaccines will be needed,” Moya added.

Over 30 years of sovereignty in health

El representative of the WHO se mostró optimista del advance de la vacuna en la isla ya que “Cuba tiene más de 30 años de producir sus propias vacunas. Casi el 80 por ciento de las vacunas del programa nacional de inmunización de Cuba son producidas en el Country”.

Cuba, cornered by the American embargo imposed since 1962, has had to seek its own remedies. “In the 1980s, he opted for biotechnology, discovering the first vaccine against meningococcus B”, explains Nils Graber, researcher in health anthropology at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland).

“The goal was both to improve the national health system and to be an exporter,” he adds, citing the delivery of treatments that Cuba has brought to Latin America, Asia and to Africa. The export of medical services, drugs, vaccines and medical personnel is currently Cuba’s main source of income, with $ 6.3 billion in 2018.

In 2020, the island sent medical brigades to 40 countries to fight the coronavirus. “The population would have perceived in a very surprising and regrettable way that Cuba should have imported a Russian or Chinese vaccine”, observes the researcher.