Cuban Abdala vaccine candidate enters second phase of clinical trial

SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba, Feb 1 (ACN) The second phase of the clinical trial of the vaccine candidate CIGB 66 (Abdala), one of the four nationally produced against COVID-19, begins this Monday at the Saturnino Lora provincial hospital in Santiago de Cuba.

Coming from labor and student entities of the capital city, almost 800 healthy volunteers or with compensated pathologies will be part of the study which in its first stage revealed a positive immunological response.

The cycle that is starting has expanded the age range of the participants from 19 to 80 years old, as it intends to reflect, as closely as possible, the Cuban population and evidences the interest of the Cuban government and the health system in immunizing all its citizens.

Abdala, as this vaccine preparation from the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) is known, showed in the previous phase few adverse reactions and an adequate safety profile in the 132 volunteers, who only reported slight pain in the area where the immunogen was applied intramuscularly.

A few days ago, Eduardo Martínez, president of BioCubaFarma, referred in his Twitter account to the evaluation, by the independent committee for the analysis of the test data, of the first immunogenicity and safety results, and asserted the progress of the national anti-COVID-19 vaccine strategy.

Since December 2, 2020, an area of the polyclinic of specialties of the Santiago hospital has been hosting the clinical research involving 40 health professionals, including physicians, nurses, laboratorians and researchers.

Together with Soberana 01 and 02, from the Finlay Vaccine Institute, and also in the second phase of the trial, Abdala and Mambisa, from the CIGB, place Cuba at the forefront of Latin American countries seeking protection against the disease caused by the new SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus.