Cuba could be the first Latin American country to develop and produce its own vaccine against Covid-19 in spite of the US economic blockade against it, Nature journal highlights on Thursday.
The scientific publication describes the development of the Cuban proposals against Covid-19 through an interview with Dr. Vicente Verez, director of the Finlay Vaccine Institute (IFV), a leading research center in the development of three of the five candidates of Cuba against the disease.
All those proposals are advancing in different phases of clinical trials with good results; so far they have demonstrated safety and no serious side effects have been reported during their use, experts assure.
Soberana 01, Soberana 02 and Soberana PLUS are IFV projects, while the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology is developing Abdala and Mambisa.
The IFV specialist assured that for the development of those candidates not a dime of funds allocated to the manufacture of medicines or the purchase of food was used; both basic products are very scarce right now in Cuba.
It has all been a great individual effort by each of the participating institutions, taking resources from other projects and being creative. ‘Our scientists are used to doing a lot with very little,’ he noted. (PL)
