Cuba and Iran to Join Efforts Against Covid19

Cuba and Iran have signed a collaboration agreement for a joint project to carry out Phase III clinical trials of the Soberana 02 Covid-19 vaccine in Iran. The Middle Eastern nation is experiencing a high incidence of infection.

The low incidence and low mortality rate of Covid on the island, with a little more than 150 deaths, make it necessary to run clinical trials not only within Cuba but also in other countries with higher occurrence of the virus.

Four vaccine candidates against Covid are at various phases of testing in Cuba. Each one of them with several formulations determined by the Cuban strategy of creating specific vaccines for different age groups, children, adults and seniors.

The Finlay Institute of Vaccines of Cuba and the Pasteur Institute of Iran signed the agreement on January 8 in Havana to collaborate with research and testing of the Soberana 02 vaccine.

Kianoush Jahanpour of Iran’s Food and Drug Administration said, “… the Pasteur Institute of Iran will co-produce a vaccine with a Cuban company, and finally, the domestically-made vaccine will be produced.”

Soberana 02 started phase II clinical trials on December 22 when the first volunteers received the immunization.

Shortly before, the director of the Finlay Institute, Dr. Vicente Vérez said they would be performing clinical testing of the Soberana 02 overseas.

Cuba has 3 other candidates, the Soberana 01, Abdala and Mambisa vaccines undergoing testing and development at the current time.

It is expected by the end of March the vaccines will have concluded the Phase III of clinical trials and will be approved for immunization.

Iran’s Pasteur Institute has a long history of collaboration with BioCubaFarma. For this reason, it has been considered the first nation for conducting clinical trials of the Cuban vaccine candidates.

According to the director of the Finlay Institute, Dr. Vicente Vérez, “… after the phase II of clinical research, the third stage of the trials will begin, in which they foresee the evaluation of effectiveness both in Cuba and Iran.”