The First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, attended the CIGB on Monday afternoon to congratulate, on behalf of Cuba, the researchers who in 13 months achieved a world milestone. "And we are going for more," declared the President of the Republic
Author: Leticia Martínez Hernández | internet@granma.cu
Author: René Tamayo León | internet@granma.cu
June 21, 2021 9:06:01 PM
After applying the three-dose formulation, the vaccine candidate Abdala has an efficacy of 92.28 percent, which places it well above the requirement of the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a vaccine as such anti COVID-19, which must be at least 50 percent effective.
From Saturday afternoon to Monday afternoon, 48 hours have passed in which Cuba, a poor and small country, has shaken the world, as noted by the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, in a meeting with researchers from the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB).
The President of the Republic decided to meet with scientists after learning about Abdala's final efficacy analysis at Monday's meeting of the Government's Temporary Working Group for the prevention and control of COVID-19.
He also did so on Saturday, when he went to greet the researchers from the Finlay Vaccine Institute after learning that the vaccine candidate Soberana 02, with its two doses, has an efficacy of 62 percent, a result that still does not contain the application of the third booster dose of Soberana Plus, which should also place it among the most effective vaccines to control the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The effectiveness of Abdala places it among the vaccines with the best results in the world, those that have been produced in the main laboratories of the most developed countries with financing of hundreds of millions and billions of dollars, something that for Cuba is a Chimera, even more so in the midst of the deepening of the economic, commercial and financial blockade throughout the pandemic.
The doctor of science Marta Ayala Ávila, general director of the CIGB, explained that efficacy is the most important result of a vaccine. "It is its effect in real life," she said.
In the presentation of the achievement, he highlighted the work of the teams of scientists who worked in the phase I / II and III clinical trials in Santiago de Cuba, Bayamo, Guantánamo and Havana, and thanked the 48,000 volunteers who were part Of the investigation.
The final analysis of the efficacy studies of Abdala against symptomatic COVID-19, which were conducted by an independent group led by the Institute for Cybernetics, Mathematics and Physics, include not only the response to an initial strain of SARS-CoV-2 (DG614G), but also mutants Alpha, Beta and Gamma, explained the Director General of the CIGB.
The scientist recalled that the clinical trial included a placebo group and another vaccinated, with three applications in a period of 0-14-28 days. She argued that the studies continue, that new evaluations and conclusions will continue to be made.
Dr.C. Marta Ayala also highlighted the work carried out by the Immunoassay Center, the AICA Laboratories and other scientific centers, as well as the Public Health workers, who have undertaken a fast and quality vaccination process that others can hardly do. countries of the planet.
He pointed out that the group of researchers dedicates the result and thanks the Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, founder of the CIGB, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, the First Secretary of the Party, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, and the pioneering scientists of this cente .
CONGRATULATIONS ON BEHALF OF CUBA
Upon hearing these results, commented the First Secretary of the Party, "one feels proud to be Cuban and to have compatriots like you."
We are - he told them - under the emotion of the scientific results that you have achieved and of the feat that this country has done, which in less than 48 hours has delivered two consecutive news items that are scientific milestones of a small island. Blocked island, which they have shot to kill, but we are alive, among other things, because of these results.
I see this result, "he added," under the feeling of admiration we feel for you and gratitude, because with these things our people are being saved, and with these things we are helping to make real that conviction that Cuba saves lives in the midst of this pandemic".
The results are truly impressive, she reiterated. In those results, "he explained," there is much to mean, and he recalled the initial days of the pandemic, when "I was convinced that poor countries were not going to be able to have the vaccines available in a short time that the rich world was producing to prioritize the rich.
"That is why I asked our scientists, with the conviction, with the assurance that we could do it, that it was necessary to have Cuban vaccines to be sovereign in this situation as well."
We, he added, are one of the few who, having vaccines to solve Cuba's problems, are thinking about how, with those same vaccines, we can solve the problems of millions in the world, and especially of the millions who have less and live today. in a tremendous uncertainty caused by the disease.
You gave an answer in thirteen months - he reiterated - in a country that in the midst of the pandemic has been more blocked. The financial persecution has intensified, they have done everything possible so that a drop of fuel does not arrive, they have done everything possible to prevent medicines from arriving.
In the middle of that, and without counting the millions of dollars that a project like this needed, we have these results. And that "has only been saved by your heart, which is worth millions, and the millions of reasons that you have been defending, because you have been thinking about the millions of Cubans and the millions in the world who can be benefited."
Here - the First Secretary of the Party reflected later - there is a fact of enormous loyalty and fidelity to Fidel's founding thought in relation to the development of biotechnology, then to the idea of improvement that Raúl had, when he went from a budgeted scheme to a business scheme; and it also has to do with a tribute to the founders, such as Dr. Luis Herrera and others who are here today, to the generations that have been passing through, and where they have all grown with these results.
This 92.28 percent efficiency, the President reiterated excitedly, puts us at the forefront, at the forefront.
«Fidel, with that tremendous confidence that he had, one day said that this was a great center that was going to have great scientific results. And this is a great scientific result, with which you have demonstrated the greatness of this center and the fidelity to that thought ».
"On behalf of Cuba, congratulations," Díaz-Canel finally told the CIGB researchers who have worked on the creation of Abdala, which is already a vaccine against COVID-19.