Cuba to submit Covid-19 vaccine dossier to WHO

Havana, Jan 26.- Cuba will present in the next few days the dossier of its anti-Covid-19 vaccines to the World Health Organization (WHO) for the certification of the immunogens, it was reported.

According to several international media, the director of the Caribbean nation’s Finlay Vaccine Institute (IFV), Vicente Verez, explained to the foreign press accredited here that meetings were held with the WHO in 2021.

Moreover, in the previous months, scientists and authorities of the island advanced recognition procedures before the regulatory entities of countries like Mexico or Argentina as “a first exercise” to improve the final dossier.

“The process takes months and costs a lot. We have very valuable clinical data, of a first level,” said the head of the IFV, the institution in charge of the Soberana 01, Soberana 02 and Soberana Plus vaccines.

He indicated that Abdala, another of the Cuban products against Covid-19, first in Latin America and produced by the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), has already started the process before the WHO, although he did not inform the specific date.

Still in terms of infrastructure and productive processes, some elements must be adjusted, acknowledged Verez during the meeting with the foreign press during the tour of the general coordinator of the Progressive International, David Adler, this Monday through the scientific institutions of the Antillean country. In recent days, Verez pointed out, the Mexican health authorities approved Abdala and it has also been authorized for its use in emergencies in Vietnam, Venezuela, Nicaragua, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. About 18 million doses have been exported to all these countries.

In addition, Soberana 02 and Soberana Plus are certified for emergency use for children in Iran, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

Cuba currently has 87.6 percent of its population with a complete anti-Covid-19 immunization scheme ( 9,801,110 people), besides 43.2 percent with the fourth booster injection (4,770,523).

(Prensa Latina)