This was confessed, in an exclusive interview with CubaSí, by the General Director of the Finlay Vaccine Institute shortly after receiving the title of Doctor Honoris Causa in Chemical Sciences from the University of Havana.
Doctor Vérez Bencomo is one of those scientists that every Cuban would like to embrace and thank, especially in these days when Soberana 02 and Soberana Plus, immunogens created by the team he directs, already protect the majority of our children. .
Thus, out of infinite admiration, we asked him what this title means to him and he answered from humility and the most endearing sense of belonging:
“This recognition is very significant because it comes from the University of Havana, where thirty years of my life have passed, where we created the first important vaccine against Hemophio Influenza type B, a synthetic antigen, and I really take it as a recognition of the effort collective, to the effort we have made for so many years trying to create vaccines, trying to do science to create vaccines that save lives. In short, this is what sums up what we have tried to do for years, applying different sciences, from Chemistry, going through the most basic sciences, to applied sciences and, really, it is an exciting moment, a moment that made me review my career, life a bit and above all thank all those who have contributed during these almost forty years of life professional”.
Is your basic training in chemistry?
“I am a chemical engineer, I studied in the Soviet Union, I joined the University of Havana in the year 77 and I was there for thirty years. There, precisely, we tried to develop synthetic chemistry as an element to produce vaccines and well, we were successful with Hemophio Influenza type B. From then on, that practically became the obsession of our lives, trying, with chemical means, to develop vaccines to prevent diseases that, otherwise, can mainly cause the death of children. In addition, in many cases they already exist, but those that exist are really very expensive vaccines, inaccessible to poor countries, for example, the pneumococcal vaccine started with 100 dollars a dose, four doses … impossible to think of a child of one poor country that can access a vaccine that will cost the entire scheme $ 400. For this reason, from that moment, the philosophy has come that we have to make our own vaccines to be able to r sovereigns “.
“The President called us now, yes, but that is not something new, it is something that we have always applied, from the beginning, because above all these vaccines that have a very large impact on science, are very expensive vaccines, economically inaccessible to the country and therefore, the strategy was to do ours “.
However, the circumstances in which they faced Sovereign’s challenge have been very particular …
“Not only the circumstances, the story of Soberana is a different story, it is a frenetic story, where you really had to learn and do a tenth of the time and, therefore, that really meant a much greater level of tension, to make bets that would allow us not to make mistakes, because if we were wrong we would be delayed and well, it has really been a beautiful story, which has allowed us to enjoy the successes although we suffer a lot with the failures along the way and it has been a very exciting moment ” .
Could it be said that the challenge has been greater?
Sure, we were faced with a virus that we did not know about two years ago, we had to learn from it at a very fast speed, but we managed to do it and that gives us a lot of comfort at the moment.
And doing science from a country like Cuba, how much does it influence the vision and vocation of a scientist?
“If you take into account that a multinational like Pfizer develops a tremendous vaccine, because it is a very good vaccine, but that this vaccine organizes it to earn 81 billion dollars during this year (2021), one realizes that things start to reverse at a certain point when profits start to drive what is done and obviously a company that expects to receive that amount of revenue in 2021 and that had the capacity to invest almost 10 billion dollars, that is a different world from the one we have to face. We have to have enough resilience to be able to face with the resources we have, with the capacities we have, have the ability to evaluate what is feasible and what is not simply by resources and from there to move forward … “.
I would claim that all of that also makes the feat greater …
“It is a tremendous satisfaction that we have been able to demonstrate with evidence that the vaccine could be used in children, before the Pfizer vaccine with all the support that that company has. So that is a bit of the level of challenge that a scientist from a poor country, which aspires to be so competitive, because furthermore, it is not inferior to any group of scientists from other parts of the world and from that, indisputably one feels very, very happy when it succeeds “.
How many moments of tension have you experienced in these months?
There have been many moments of tension, when one makes a bet and it does not come out, one has to have the ability to realize and not complacently think that it did come out and therefore one has to have an open mind and everything ready to identify where there is a path that is not the one that leads to the end and change it as soon as possible. That is part of the exercise that we have had to do to be able to reach the end “.
And what have been the greatest satisfactions?
“When the results come out, for example the results in children are spectacular, the safety in children is very high, the immune response of children is very high, so that has been a moment of great satisfaction.”
