Cuba to begin intervention trial with Abdala vaccine candidate in central province

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 31 (ACN) An intervention trial with the anti-COVID-19 Abdala vaccine candidate will begin this April in the province of Sancti Spíritus, central Cuba.

The study is expected to include workers from the province's Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology and personnel from other areas of the health sector, the local newspaper Escambray reported.

Dr. Manuel Rivero Abella, provincial director of Health, explained that the sample is still pending to be defined by the Ministry of Public Health, but they are proposing around 300 workers, mainly those who have been in red zones in the care of patients with COVID-19.

Among the criteria for the inclusion of the personnel are that they be healthy adults, with no associated disease, he clarified.

The people included in the study will be administered three doses: the first one, then another one after 14 days and the last one 28 days after the start of the application of the product.

Rivero Abella indicated that everyone is subjected to a PCR beforehand to make sure they do not have any disease and then blood studies are carried out between one dose and another, since one of the aims of the intervention study is to detect adverse reactions to the vaccine.

Phase III studies of this vaccine candidate began on March 22 in Santiago de Cuba, Granma and Guantanamo provinces.

As reported this week by the Cuban biopharmaceutical industry business group BioCubaFarma, 19,524 people have already been vaccinated, which represents 40.7 % of the 48,000 volunteers to participate.