Cuba to conduct trial of anti-Covid vaccine in pregnant and lactating women

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – More than 9,000 women living in Havana will be administered two doses of Soberana 02, plus a booster dose of Soberana Plus, the two drugs against the coronavirus developed by the Finlay Vaccine Institute (IFV).

Havana’s provincial deputy director of Public Health Nilda Roca explained that only women in the second and third trimester of pregnancy and breastfeeding their babies will be included in the trial.

The combination of two doses of Soberana 02 with an extra dose of Soberana Plus has shown a 91.2% efficacy against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in preliminary studies, according to IFV scientists.

The scientific institution’s director Vicente Vérez recently explained to the island’s media that vaccination should not have any consequence on unborn babies, and to that end the research has advanced in order to demonstrate that the product “was not toxic, nor capable of causing a congenital defect in the fetus.”

Cuba has developed five vaccines against Covid-19, of which Abdala has been authorized for emergency use in the country by the Center for State Control of Medicines, Equipment and Medical Devices (CECMED) after proving 92.2 % efficacy in clinical trials and thus becoming the first vaccine created and produced in Latin America.

The Caribbean country’s health authorities are currently conducting a health intervention trial with Abdala and Soberana 02 in high-risk areas, including the capital.

Over 3 million Cubans out of the 11.2 million population have been administered at least one dose of these vaccines as part of the clinical trials and intervention studies conducted in parallel to the health intervention trial.

According to Cuban government estimates, almost 60% of the population will be fully vaccinated by the end of next August and 80% will have been inoculated with at least one dose of their vaccines by then.

Cuba is not a member of the World Health Organization’s Covax facility created for middle- and low-income countries to access vaccines, nor has it purchased them on the international market.