Cuba will send the dossier of its Abdala anticovid vaccine to the World Health Organization (WHO) in March to try to achieve authorization from the agency, the state group BioCubaFarma announced on Tuesday.
The president of the state biopharmaceutical company, Eduardo Martínez, assured at a press conference that experts from the WHO and its regional office for America ( PAHO)
The documentation of this vaccine, one of the three developed by Cuba and the first to pass the WHO prequalification process, includes information on clinical research and other data related to its production, he explained.
According to Martínez, the exchange with the representatives of these health organizations has been “permanent” and it is in Cuba’s interest that Cuban vaccines receive international approval.
The approval of the WHO would facilitate the international marketing of Cuban vaccines, which could become a source of income and foreign exchange for a country that is going through a serious economic crisis. This is precisely what the exile organization Archivo Cuba fears, that in a recent report He assured that there was the possibility of an imminent “emergency approval” from the international organization “for at least one and up to three of its vaccines.”
The approval of the WHO would facilitate the international marketing of Cuban vaccines, which could become a source of income and foreign exchange for a country that is going through a serious economic crisis
“It is not clear how far the vaccine candidates are from being approved by the WHO, since the information in official Cuban media is scarce and contradictory,” the Miami-based NGO argued in its report, “so a sudden announcement long before than expected would be in line with the modus operandi from Cuba”.
Archivo Cuba denounced that if such approval were granted, “the number of potential buyers willing to buy these vaccines would probably grow considerably,” which, they denounced, “would greatly strengthen the Cuban dictatorship.”
At the moment, only some allies of Havana are using their vaccines, such as Venezuela, Nicaragua, Iran and Vietnam, although the Cuban government has indicated that it is in negotiations with 15 other developing countries.
Some countries, with Mexico as the most relevant, have authorized the emergency use of Abdala, although there is no evidence that it has been applied to the population.
Two other national formulas, Soberana 02 and Soberana Plus, received authorization for emergency use by the Cuban regulatory entity in the middle of last year and have been applied massively to the population of the island.
The three Cuban vaccines showed an efficacy of over 90% in the studies, always according to figures from the health authorities, although there are no studies published in scientific journals, independently reviewed by peers, of any of them.
Martínez indicated that several experts will be invited to the Biohabana 2022 biotechnology congress, which will be held at the end of April and in which the pandemic will be one of the priority issues.
The Cuban Government enabled from this Monday a digital vaccination certificate through a platform developed by a team from the University of Informatics Sciences, a tool that is not an internal requirement on the Island and that in other countries is only valid if the drugs have been approved by the WHO.
The vaccine list that are being evaluated by the international organization around the world has been for more than a year with the same indication about Cuban women: they have not even received the pertinent information.
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The team of 14ymedio is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time becoming a member of our journal. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
