Second Cuban COVID-19 Vaccine to Phase III Trials

Havana, March 18 (ACN) The Cuban COVID -19 candidate vaccine named ABDALA is entering phase III trials March 22 to April 9 in the eastern cities of Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo.

The announcement was made on Thursday by the Cuban Center for State Control of Drugs, Medical Equipment and Devices (CECMED), which is the authority to authorize such procedures.

The trials aimed at assessing the efficacy, safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine which is to be administered via intramuscular to prevent the symptomatic disease caused by the SARS-Cov-2 virus, according to a report by the Public Register for Clinical Trials.

The procedure will include 48 thousand volunteers between 19 and 80 years of age as part of a Randomized double-blind placebo control study.

ABDALA candidate vaccine was developed by the Havana-based Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center (CIGB) and it is the second Cuban COVID-19 candidate vaccine to enter phase III trials, after SOBERNA 02, which also entered that phase earlier this month.

The vaccine concluded its phase II trial in February with 760 volunteers in the Saturnino Lora Hospital in eastern Santiago de Cuba.

Cuba counts on five COVID-19 candidate vaccines: ABDALA, MAMBISA, SOBERANA 01, SOBERANA 02 and SOBERANA PLUS, and became the first country in Latin America to take a vaccine against the coronavirus to phase III trials.