Cuban government hails results of interferon use

HAVANA, Cuba, Sep 26 (ACN) Presided over by the Cuban Head of State Miguel Díaz-Canel, the weekly meeting of government leaders with health care scientists reviewed the results of interferon use in the COVID-19 Action Protocol and highlighted the capacity of Cuban science and health system to resort to provenly effective products such as interferons to prevent and fight new diseases.

ScD Marta Ayala Avila, member of the Political Bureau and general director of the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), said that more than 40 years after Cuba first produced interferons, the new generations of scientists and public health professionals keep supporting a project promoted by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz.

As early as in 1981, Cuba obtained leukocyte interferon, one of the first in the world, and has used it to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

ScD Hugo Nodarse Cuní, head of Clinical Research at the CIGB, recalled that interferons were first used in COVID patients in China with an anti-viral drug created by Cuban scientists and produced by the Chinese-Cuban joint venture ChangHEBER which Cuba used to arrest an outbreak of the dengue virus in 1981.

The specialist reviewed the results of clinical trials involving more than 88,000 individuals to evaluate the effect and safety of the Cuban interferons HeberFERON versus Heberon Alfa R and the use of the latter in COVID-19 patients. Treatment with Interferon Alfa-2b contributed to their recovery and reduced significantly the number of ICU patients.

Details were also provided about the pharmaceutical formulation of recombinant human Interferon Alpha 2b in a nasal solution called Nasalferon devised by Cuban biotechnology during the pandemic and proved to be effective as an anti-viral drug.