[ad_1]
Cuban scientists work against the clock on their Soberana 2 vaccine
Some equipment at the Finlay Institute for Vaccines in Havana may be considered obsolete elsewhere in the world, but the science behind its whitewashed walls is cutting edge.
Researchers are working long hours on Cuba’s best solution to solving its coronavirus crisis: Soberana 2, the Covid-19 vaccine produced in the country.
Soberana (Spanish for “sovereign”) 2 is a conjugate vaccine – meaning that an antigen is fused to a carrier molecule to enhance the stability and effectiveness of the vaccine.
In a few weeks, it will be tested on tens of thousands of volunteers.
The results of the first clinical trials were “encouraging” and “very important”, says the director of the institute, Dr Vicente Vérez Bencomo, and the communist government hopes to give the vaccine to everyone on the island here the end of the year.
“Our plan is of course to vaccinate our population first,” explains Dr Vérez at a press conference. “Moving on to commercial production of Soberana 2, we expect to have in the order of 100 million doses in 2021 and we will devote a significant portion of these doses to fully immunizing the country.
No American role
This is an ambitious but realistic goal because Cuba has more than 30 years of experience in biotechnology and immunology.
In the late 1980s, Cuban scientists produced the first meningitis B vaccine, and then leader Fidel Castro opened the Finlay Institute in part with the aim of finding ways around the embargo. American on the island, decades old.
If the patents of American pharmacological companies are not available in Cuba, he will find his own solutions in this area, he said.
However, it remains beyond the island’s production capacity to manufacture 100 million doses of vaccine without any form of international assistance.
Yet even if the US government under President Joe Biden reverses the hard line former President Trump took on Cuba, the US will play no role in producing Soberana.
“Our main contacts are with Europe and Canada and we have participants from Italy and France”, explains Dr Vérez, adding that “unfortunately” at this stage there is no American participation. “We hope that in the future it will be possible to take the next step in cooperation,” he said.
International organizations like the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) hope that Cuba will become the first country in Latin America to produce its own vaccine.
“We are very optimistic,” said PAHO Representative in Cuba, Dr José Moya. “We have been kept informed since the pilot phase of Soberana 2 and during the experimental trials, and we know that Cuba has been studying the viability of several vaccines since August of last year.
Health under strain
The stakes for Cuba are high. First, its own Covid-19 statistics are deteriorating from week to week.
Confirmed cases recently jumped to over 1,000 per day for the first time since the start of the pandemic. While those numbers are tiny compared to those in Mexico, Brazil and the United States, they are still serious enough to put additional strain on Cuba’s creaky healthcare system.
By the middle of last year, Cuba had largely contained its outbreak by combining an aggressive information campaign and the closure of its airports. In July and August, there were several consecutive weeks of minimal transmission and very few deaths.
But the cases have gradually reappeared, much to the frustration of Cubans.
Dr Moya of the Pan American Health Organization says the situation is not out of control and mirrors that of other countries. “There came a time in all of our countries where we had to start reopening. And that’s what happened here, as they tried to gradually move towards the so-called ‘new normal’.
Short-term pain
But Cuba is currently experiencing its worst economic outlook since the end of the Cold War, so there is also a significant economic incentive for an effective vaccine.
The coronavirus lockdown has been very painful for an island so dependent on tourism with an economy shrinking 11% last year.
Long queues form in front of grocery stores and supermarkets every day as people line up for basic items.
The government chose this time to implement a number of overdue reforms, from unifying Cuba’s tangled dual currency system to some liberalization of self-employment licenses.
While these measures may ultimately bolster Cuba’s struggling economy, they cause short-term suffering for many families, especially those without parents who send remittances from abroad.
Cubans are very resilient and resourceful – they have faced the twin challenges of US sanctions and authoritarian state control. But many are exhausted by the relentless months of coronavirus restrictions and dire economic hardship.
A glimmer of hope?
With children still out of school, bankrupt businesses and a curfew in place in Havana, people are yearning for encouraging news about vaccination.
A viable vaccine would allow the island to reopen sooner and with more certainty than before. Soberana 2 would also generate much-needed income if exported to the region.
All this places a real urgency for the scientists working there, not only to alleviate the island’s health crisis, but also its economic crisis.
[ad_2]
Source link
