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Cuban-developed vaccine enters Phase III trial

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Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/afp/03/05/cuba-finlay-vaccin.jpg"/><figcaption>Cuba&#x27;s Finlay vaccine institute has announced that it will launch phase 3 trials of the Soberana 2 coronavirus vaccine. <em>AFP</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>A Cuban-developed coronavirus candidate vaccine entered into Phase III trials Thursday, the first shot developed by a Latin American country to get this far, the government said.</p><p>The recruitment of 44,000 volunteers aged 19 to 80 to test the drug named Soberana 2 has already begun, said Cuba&#x27;s Finlay vaccine institute.</p><p>The first trial shots should start being administered in Havana next week.</p><p>The trial volunteers will be divided into three groups: some will receive two doses of the vaccine 28 days apart, another group will get two doses plus a third immune booster, and the third a placebo.</p><p>This third phase of the trial will officially end three months after the last dose is injected, the institute&#x27;s Yury Valdes told reporters.</p><p>But if the results are promising, authorization for emergency use could be sought before then.</p><p>The communist state, which has stated it wants to vaccinate all inhabitants this year, has been relatively unscathed by the Covid-19 pandemic, with just over 53,300 recorded cases and 336 deaths in a population of 11.2 million.</p><p>Under American sanctions, the island nation began developing its own vaccines in the 1980s, discovering the first immunization against the meningitis-causing Meningococcal B bacteria.</p><p>Nearly 80 percent of its vaccines are produced locally, and Cuba is working on four coronavirus candidate vaccines.</p><p>Soberana 2, like Novavax developed in America, is a recombinant protein vaccine.</p><p>They work by recreating the &quot;spikes&quot; on the surface of the coronavirus and introducing it to the body, training the immune system to recognize such intruders and fight back in case of a real infection.</p><p>Recombinant vaccines, unlike some coronavirus shots already in use, do not need extreme refrigeration.</p><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div><div><strong>FROM THE ARCHIVES:</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CEn8ShGYGFo?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

<p>A Cuban-developed coronavirus candidate vaccine entered into Phase III trials Thursday, the first shot developed by a Latin American country to get this far, the government said.<br /> </p>

A Cuban-developed coronavirus candidate vaccine entered into Phase III trials Thursday, the first shot developed by a Latin American country to get this far, the government said.