Cuba’s Abdala Vaccine To Be Used for Emergencies in Mexico

A nurse vaccinates a child with Abdala COVID-19 vaccine, Camaguey, Cuba, 2021. | Photo: Twitter/ @CIGBCuba

Published 31 August 2021

People inmunized with this COVID-19 vaccine have developed defenses against beta, alpha, epsilon, and delta strains.

On Monday, the Committee of New Molecules of the Federal Commission for Health Risk Protection (COFREPIS) issued an opinion in favor of the Cuban Abdala COVID-19 vaccine being used in emergency cases in Mexico.

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"This favorable technical opinion represents a step forward in the approval process, which seeks to analyze the quality, safety and efficiency requirements of this vaccine," COFREPIS stated and stressed that Abdala is the first Latin American vaccine to be considered by its new molecules committee.

Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard welcomed the COFREPIS decision and confirmed his country’s willingness to support the development and production of coronavirus vaccines in the region.

In the coming days, the Sanitary Authorization Commission (CAS) will meet to analyze the Abdala dossiers submitted by the pharmaceutical company Mexican Neuronic and the Cuban Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB).

Abdala is a recombinant protein vaccine, which works by "recreating the 'spikes' on the surface' of the coronavirus and introducing it to the body, training the immune system to recognize intruders and fight back in case of a real infection," France 24 explained, recalling that "recombinant vaccines do not need extreme refrigeration."

In the clinical trials carried out in Cuba, this vaccine showed an efficacy rate of 92,2 percent against symptomatic disease and proved to be 100 percent effective in preventing deaths and severe disease symptoms.

Thanks to these results, Cuban health authorities approved conducting clinical trials of the Abdala vaccine in vulnerable population groups. The clinical trial Ismaelillo, for instance, is testing Abdala's efficacy and retroactivity in children from three to 18 years of age in Camaguey province.

After eight weeks of vaccination, coronavirus lethality has decreased up to six times in several municipalities of Havana City. Citizens immunized with Abdala vaccine have developed defenses against beta, alpha, epsilon, and delta strains.