#Cuba approves emergency use of home-grown Covid vaccine, Latin America’s first

Cuba on Friday approved its home-grown Abdala coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, the first developed in Latin America.

The CECMED health regulator gave the go-ahead after Abdala’s makers last month announced the vaccine candidate was more than 92 percent effective at preventing COVID-19 after three doses.

Cuba is working on five coronavirus vaccines, and in May started immunizing its population using two of them—Abdala and Soberana 2, even before they received approval.

By this week, 6.8 million of Cuba’s 11.2 million people have received at least one dose of either vaccine, while 1.6 million have the required three doses.

The country has not bought or sought vaccines from elsewhere. It hopes to immunize its population before the end of the year.

In June, the BioCubaFarma laboratory said Abdala “shows efficacy of 92.28 percent in its three-dose scheme.”

The CECMED said Friday its approval of the vaccine was based on its analysis that Abdala met requirements for “quality, safety and effectiveness.”

It was given “after completing a rigorous process of evaluation of the dossier and having carried out inspections of the plants involved,” added Aica Laboratories, where the vaccine is produced.

Under American sanctions, Cuba has a long tradition of making its own vaccines, dating back to the 1980s.

Nearly 80 percent of its vaccines are produced locally.

On Thursday, the Finlay Institute which makes Soberana 2 said it, too, showed efficacy exceeding 91 percent after three doses.

The World Health Organization has set a 50-percent efficacy threshold for coronavirus vaccines to offer protection against the virus or disease.

Cuba has been relatively unscathed by the outbreak but has seen a recent sharp increase in cases, with 218,000 cases among its population of 11.2 million, and some 1,450 deaths.

Venezuela has already signed a contract to acquire 12 million doses of Abdala, and also to produce it locally.

© 2021 AFP