{"id":5673,"date":"2021-12-18T13:51:31","date_gmt":"2021-12-18T13:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/?p=5673"},"modified":"2021-12-18T13:51:36","modified_gmt":"2021-12-18T13:51:36","slug":"cuba-now-exporting-covid-vaccines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/cuba-now-exporting-covid-vaccines\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuba now exporting Covid vaccines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After immunising its own population, Cuba\u2019s own developed vaccines are to be marketed internationally, says ANDREAS KNOBLOCH<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Cuban volunteer doctors visit a slum in Caracas, Venezuela, April 2020<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

AS RECENTLY as August and September, Cuba had to cope with the most severe Covid outbreak to date, which pushed the health system to breaking point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, the number of infections on the island has declined significantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time this year, the number of active cases has fallen below 1,000 \u2014 and the trend is still downward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, between 150 and 200 Covid-19 cases are recorded per day nationwide. This is also down to the ongoing vaccination campaign. Almost 90 per cent of the population is now fully vaccinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cuba is not only the only country in Latin America that has its own Covid vaccines, but is also one of the countries with the highest vaccination rates worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This cannot be appreciated enough, Manuel Vanegas Ayala, representative of the Swiss non-governmental organisation Medi-Cuba Suisse, told the author in Havana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so easy to say that Cuba has its own vaccines \u2014 as if that were as simple as going out for a beer somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the \u201cresult of an incredible effort by the country, by its scientists and by the people who participated in the clinical trials.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Vanegas Ayala\u2019s view, Cuba could \u201csell itself even better to the world\u201d with this achievement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In view of the US blockade and the economic crisis, it is \u201cincredible that a country can produce its own vaccines under these conditions.\u201d Many wealthier countries have not been able to do this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Cuba has refused to import vaccines from multinational pharmaceutical companies or join the World Health Organisation\u2019s (WHO) Covax programme, through which vaccines are distributed worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, the country focused on developing its own vaccines. The Cuban vaccines are conjugate vaccines, in which a combination of proteins triggers a strong immune response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soberana 02 uses a variant of the spike protein of Sars-CoV-2 that is responsible for invading body cells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The technology has been tried and tested for decades and is used in several vaccines, for example to vaccinate young children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are international initiatives that I respect tremendously. Whether I believe in them is another question,\u201d Vicente Verez Bencomo, director-general of the Finlay Institute for Vaccines in Havana, told the journal Nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe wanted to rely solely on our own abilities to vaccinate our population, not on the decisions of others. And life is proving us to be correct.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vaccine stocks were being hoarded by rich countries, he said, so many poorer countries were struggling to access vaccine doses.
Cuba was able to step into the breach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state-owned company Bio Cuba Pharma says it has an annual production capacity of 100 million doses for Abdala, Soberana 02 and the booster dose Soberana Plus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A state-of-the-art biotech complex has just been inaugurated in the Mariel Special Development Zone just outside Havana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new facility can produce 30 million doses of Abdala in six months, according to its director Catalina Alvarez Irarragorri.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, Abdala and Soberana 02 are being tested by experts from WHO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An official worldwide approval by the UN organisation would facilitate international marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even without this, some countries are already showing interest in the Cuban vaccines, and supply contracts have already been signed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of September, Cuba sent a first batch of five million doses of Abdala to Vietnam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venezuela and Nicaragua are also being supplied with several million doses of Abdala and Soberana 02 respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January, Vietnam and Venezuela also plan to start producing Abdala themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran is also producing the Soberana 02 vaccine, having previously conducted phase III clinical trials in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cuban vaccines could also soon be produced in Argentina and Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As is clear from this list of countries, geopolitics is also playing an important role here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cuba expert Jennifer Hosek from Queen\u2019s University, Kingston, Canada, even fears that a kind of new cold war is developing in the distribution and recognition of vaccines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She says: \u201cI think it\u2019s very questionable whether this is really about the effectiveness of a particular vaccine or about the geopolitical relations between the countries concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article by Andreas Knobloch, who is based in Havana, was first published in Neues Deutschland on November 29 2021 and was translated by John Green.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After immunising its own population, Cuba\u2019s own developed vaccines are to be marketed internationally, says ANDREAS KNOBLOCH AS RECENTLY as August and September, Cuba had […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101011,"featured_media":5674,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cuba"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5980,"url":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/cuba-develops-five-covid-vaccines-boast-high-vaccination-rate\/","url_meta":{"origin":5673,"position":0},"title":"Cuba Develops Five Covid Vaccines, Boast High Vaccination Rate","author":"Editorial Team","date":"March 4, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0u6uvNp5RPQ","rel":"","context":"In "Cuba"","block_context":{"text":"Cuba","link":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/category\/cuba\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screenshot-2022-03-04-at-14.36.36.png?fit=743%2C409&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screenshot-2022-03-04-at-14.36.36.png?fit=743%2C409&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screenshot-2022-03-04-at-14.36.36.png?fit=743%2C409&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screenshot-2022-03-04-at-14.36.36.png?fit=743%2C409&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3528,"url":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/cuba-and-its-4-vaccines-against-covid-19\/","url_meta":{"origin":5673,"position":1},"title":"Cuba and its 4 vaccines against COVID-19","author":"Editorial Team","date":"January 18, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"By Cuban Fuente \u00a0The Italian Fabrizio Chiodo is a professor of Chemistry at the University of Havana and heads the list of foreign collaborators participating in the development of two vaccines against COVID-19 at the Finlay Institute of Cuba: Soberana 1 and Soberana 2. \u00a0\u201cThe trust of the people is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cuba"","block_context":{"text":"Cuba","link":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/category\/cuba\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/vaccine.jpg?fit=1049%2C611&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/vaccine.jpg?fit=1049%2C611&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/vaccine.jpg?fit=1049%2C611&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/vaccine.jpg?fit=1049%2C611&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5859,"url":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/cuba-pledges-lifesaving-package-of-covid-19-vaccine-support-to-global-south-at-progressive-international-briefing\/","url_meta":{"origin":5673,"position":2},"title":"Cuba pledges \u201clifesaving package\u201d of Covid-19 vaccine support to Global South at Progressive International briefing","author":"Editorial Team","date":"January 26, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Cuban government has announced advanced plans to deliver 200 million doses of homegrown Covid-19 vaccines to the Global South, described as \u201clifesaving\u201d by the head of the Progressive International\u2019s delegation to the Caribbean nation. 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