MIAMI, United States. – This coming March, the Cuban government will send to the World Health Organization (WHO) a dossier of its Abdala anti-Covid vaccine, in an effort to obtain that organization’s authorization. The news was announced this Tuesday by the state’s pharmaceutical industry group, BioCubaFarma.
According to the news agency EFE, the president of BioCubaFarma, Eduardo Martínez, assured his audience during a press conference this Tuesday that experts from the WHO and its Americas affiliate, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), would be invited to the new manufacturing plant where Abdala is produced, at the Mariel Special Development Zone.
The documentation for the Abdala Cuban vaccine, one of three that Cuba has developed and the first to go through the WHO’s prequalification process, includes information about clinical research and other data about its production, Martínez explained. He also stated that the exchange with representatives of these health organizations has been “permanent” and that it is in Cuba’s best interest to obtain international approval for its vaccines.
Approval by the WHO will make it easier to commercialize internationally the Cuban vaccines. This would become an important source of income and hard currency for the communist government which is undergoing one of the worst economic crisis in decades.
Havana’s vaccines are being administered at present by countries allied to Cuba, like Venezuela, Nicaragua, Iran and Vietnam. The government of Miguel Díaz-Canel has indicated that it is in negotiations with another 15 countries in the developing world. The government of Mexico –the most relevant country on that list- has authorized emergency use of Abdala.
In addition to Abdala, Cuba has two more vaccines, Soberana 02 and Soberana Plus. They were both authorized for emergency use by Cuba’s regulatory agency in mid 2021, and have been widely administered to the Cuban population.
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