Cuba produces 300 thousand doses of Abdala vaccine candidate every other day

HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 29 (ACN) Doctor Antonio Vallin Garcia, General Director of Aica Laboratories, said that between 280 and 300 thousand doses of the Abdala candidate are produced every other day and there are currently three batches on an industrial scale.

The joint work of the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) and Aica Laboratories has made it possible for all the batches manufactured of the Abdala vaccine candidate to be 100 percent satisfactory.

The executive said that it was a challenge to assume this production, because they did not have a culture of providing services or working with biological products; however, it has been achieved thanks to the support of the Biopreparations Center, the CIGB, the CIGB Mariel and the institutions of the BioCubaFarma Business Group.

He pointed out that the industrial capacities of the center are very high, generated from the investments made over 20 years, which have not only focused on manufacturing technology, but also on research, development and analytics of auxiliary and structural systems.

Such investments allow us to be up to this challenge and today we can respond by having technological sovereignty, wide experience in the production of medicines and a human capital ready to take on the task, he said.

Aica Laboratories Company, from the merger of seven companies, is a state-owned producer of generic drugs, with five manufacturing facilities, 16 manufacturing lines and five pharmaceutical forms, where about 190 products are produced, which contribute to the basic drug list and represent about 55 percent.

Every year, its 1,800 workers are involved in the production of between 120 and 140 million sterile doses, of which between 20 and 40 percent are exported and the rest are used to supply the needs of the Cuban health system.