No Cuban child died of COVID-19 after vaccination campaign
Before the vaccination campaign in children started, 18 infants between the ages of two and 18 years old had unfortunately lost their lives to COVID-19. No child died of this terrible disease in Cuba after the vaccination campaign in this population group began.

Author: Leticia Martínez | informacion@granma.cu
july 20, 2022 10:07:07

Photo: Ismael Batista
Before the vaccination campaign in children started, 18 infants between the ages of two and 18 years old had unfortunately lost their lives to COVID-19. No child died of this terrible disease in Cuba after the vaccination campaign in this population group began. This is the most relevant result of the Cuban vaccine Soberana, an immunogen of the Finlay Vaccine Institute.

Precisely, the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine presented the closing of the evaluation of the effectiveness and impact of the pediatric vaccination against COVID-19 in the country during the Tuesday meeting with the President of the Republic.

According to IPK doctor, María Eugenia Toledo Romaní, Soberana’s main researcher, it was determined after a rigorous study that the effectiveness of the vaccine in the prevention of the symptomatic disease COVID-19 in children from two to five years old was 90.1 % during the Omicron wave in Cuba.

Meanwhile, the effectiveness of vaccination with Soberana in the prevention of severe COVID-19 disease in children aged two to 18 years was 95.8%.

This mean that there were more than 63,600 less cases, said the IPK specialist. This also means that more than 63,000 children and young people were prevented from transmitting the disease, which undoubtedly contributed to the control of the coronavirus epidemic in the country, said Vicente Vérez Bencomo, director of the IFV.

On this highly sensitive issue for the Cuban family, the President of the Republic considered the campaign was also decisive for the restart of the school year and, therefore, to resume normality in the lives of children. The vaccination has made possible the normal course and lack of complications in schools, said the Head of State.

In this meeting with the experts form the Ministry of Health (MINSAP), Vérez Bencomo detailed to the country’s leadership the technological transfer of the production of Soberana vaccine to the Pasteur Institute of Iran, a scientific process equally successful in those distant lands.

New joint venture created in Mariel to distribute biotechnology products
The Cuban enterprise Cimab S.A. and Neuronic Mexicana S.A. establish a new company named IncuBIO, with headquarters in the Mariel Special Development Zone

Author: National news staff | informacion@granma.cu
september 8, 2021 13:09:47

Photo: Granma Archives
A new joint venture for the development and commercialization of innovative biotechnology products has been established in the Mariel Special Development Zone, named IncuBIO S.A., according to an announcement made by the Cuba’s Cimab S.A. and Neuronic Mexicana S.A. de C.V.

Information on the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Investment (Mincex) website indicates that IncuBIO is designed to attract venture capital, and its shares may be acquired by future investors, looking to increase the value of products by financing clinical trials in markets of underdeveloped countries.

Among the innovative products for which development and commercialization rights are granted by the exclusive license from the new entity is NeuroEPO, one of the most promising assets in the portfolio of the Center for Molecular Immunology, since it is being tested as a treatment for several neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Ataxia.

The Mincex publication details that, with the incorporation of IncuBIO, Cimab – dedicated to the development and management of businesses through its direct participation in international alliances – is a shareholder in five joint ventures located in China, Thailand, Singapore and Cuba.

Neuronic Mexicana S.A. de C.V. will be responsible for the commercialization of biopharmaceutical products and medical equipment.

Cuba initiates WHO prequalification of its vaccines
False information reported on CNN, regarding Cuban vaccines and the World Health Organization, debunked by Dr. Eduardo Martínez Díaz, and WHO representative Dr. José Moya

Author: Laura Mercedes Giráldez | informacion@granmai.cu
september 8, 2021 13:09:50

Photo: Ricardo López Hevia
Cuba is the first country in Latin America and the Caribbean to develop its own vaccines to combat COVID-19, with five candidates, three already approved for emergency use by the national regulatory authority, and has now begun the process of prequalification of its immunogens before the World Health Organization (WHO).

The information was announced in a meeting held September 2 between BioCubaFarma’s president, Dr. Eduardo Martínez Díaz, and the PAHO/WHO representative in Cuba, Dr. José Moya, who described the meeting as cordial, welcoming the interest expressed by our country to begin the prequalification of its vaccines, and noted that international media reports citing an alleged WHO disqualification of Cuban drugs are based on the manipulation of statements made by one of the organization’s officials.

A recent CNN report alleged that the Cuban government did not receive an emergency use license for its vaccine against COVID-19 from the WHO and, therefore, it cannot be purchased through the PAHO Revolving Fund.

BioCubaFarma, responded on its Twitter account, stating, “Once again information is manipulated to affect Cuba and its image.

“This is false information, our vaccine has already been authorized for emergency use by Cecmed, a regulatory authority of reference in the region and recognized by the WHO itself,” the post continued.

“The process for its recognition by the WHO has not yet begun, so it is impossible that an evaluation has been issued. Considering the respect which WHO/PAHO deserves, its history of cooperation with Cuba and the many lives that Abdala can save, let the truth be told,” BioCubaFarma insisted.

Abdala, with three doses, demonstrates 92.28% efficacy
Communist Party First Secretary and President of the Republic Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, on behalf of Cuba, congratulates researchers who in 13 months achieved a global milestone

Leticia Martínezjune 22, 2021 08:06:44

Photo: Estudio Revolución
A three-dose regimen of the Abdala candidate vaccine has demonstrated an efficacy of 92.28 percent, placing it well above the World Health Organization (WHO) requirement of at least 50 percent, to be recognized as an anti-COVID-19 vaccine.
Over the course of 48 hours, from Saturday to Monday, Cuba, a small, poor country, has shaken the world, noted Party First Secretary and President of the Republic Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, in a meeting, yesterday afternoon, with researchers at the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), where Abdala was developed.

Photo: Estudio Revolución
The President decided to meet with the scientists after learning about the efficacy analysis of Abdala at Monday’s meeting of the government’s COVID-19 prevention and control group.
He had visited the Finlay Vaccine Institute on Saturday, after learning that its Soberana 02 candidate vaccine, with just two doses, had demonstrated 62% efficacy – without a third booster dose of Soberana Plus, which should produce an superior response.
Abdala’s efficacy places it among vaccines with the best results in the world, which have all been produced in the principal laboratories of the most developed countries with financing of hundreds of millions and billions of dollars, something that for Cuba is impossible, even more so given the tightening of the economic, commercial and financial blockade during the pandemic.
Dr. Marta Ayala Avila, CIGB director, explained that efficacy is the most important objective of any vaccine. “It is its effect in real life,” she stated.