Cuba boosts links between its universities and scientists facing COVID-19

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 8 (ACN) Cuban universities have put their potential in a battle that belongs to everyone, said Yuri Valdes Balbin, deputy director of the Finlay Institute of Vaccines (IFV), referring to the confrontation with the COVID-19 in Cuba.

In a conference at the Convention Center, within the framework of the University 2022 Congress, Valdes Balbin stressed that the establishment of networks with universities in the island has made it possible to accelerate in time the production of pharmaceuticals against the disease.
The leader of the Soberana project noted that the teaching institutions were linked to the clinical trials of the immunogens from the technical knowledge of their professors and students.

He stressed that the IFV, along with the University of Havana, the University of Medical Sciences of Cienfuegos, the Technological University and the University of Informatics Sciences (UCI), carried out the management processes related to the vaccine candidates.

With these alliances, the ties between the universities and the BioCubaFarma group (Group of the Biotechnological and Pharmaceutical Industries of Cuba) were strengthened, which results in 83 innovative projects, distributed in 53 biomedical, 17 technological, eight informatics and five agricultural projects, explained Rolando Perez Rodriguez Rodriguez, its director of Science and Innovation.

For his part, Daniel Garcia Rivero, head of the Chemical Synthesis Laboratory of the University of Havana, affirmed that the joint work with the IFV began before the health crisis period, allowing the country to obtain the high number of doses of Soberana currently available in the country.
The 13th International Congress on Higher Education, University 2022, opened on Monday, will be in session until next Friday and its participants will present the main results and challenges of education in Cuba and worldwide.