How are clinical trials with the vaccine candidate Mambisa going? (Focus)

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 31 (ACN) Mambisa is one of Cuba’s two COVID-19 vaccine candidates—the other is Soberana 01—after the Center for State Control of Medicines, Equipment and Medical Devices (CECMED) approved the emergency use of Abdala, Soberana 02 and Soberana Plus.

Mambisa can be administered through the nasal cavity and is one of the 11 vaccines of its kind in the world that reached the clinical trial stage. It is also the only one obtained by genetic engineering, which makes it a safe candidate, according to Doctor in Biological Sciences Gerardo Guillén Nieto, director of Biomedical Research of the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB).

“In order to request authorization for its emergency use as a booster, Mambisa is under evaluation together with the vaccine Abdala in two clinical trials, one involving COVID-19 convalescents and the other with healthy individuals who received all three doses of Abdala,” he said. “We expect to have the laboratory results in a few weeks to present the final evidences at the International Congress BioHabana 2022, scheduled for April 25-29.

This clinical trial, called Baconao, includes 2,220 volunteers who received the first three doses of Abdala and were boosted five months later with this vaccine and Mambisa, which has been already administered as an intranasal vaccine to more than eight million Cubans.