Abdala, designed and manufactured at the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), has since October 2021 been authorized for emergency use by the Cuban regulatory authority for its inoculation in children over two years of age. In Mexico, the vaccine received approval for emergency use in Mexico.
This anticovid formula, one of the three developed and approved in Cuba, is more than 90% effective, according to national health authorities, something that has not been confirmed by independent external experts.
The CIGB presented the Abdala dossier to the World Health Organization (WHO) this April, with which several million Cubans have been immunized, to begin its international recognition process.
The Cuban government has not acquired vaccines on the international market nor is it part of the Covax Mechanism created under the auspices of the WHO to promote equitable access to immunization in low- and middle-income nations.
Origin and development of the Abdala vaccine
On July 9, 2021, Cuban scientists fulfilled one of the greatest milestones in biotechnology and the fight against the covid-19 pandemic by obtaining, from the Cuban regulatory authority, the Center for State Control of Medicines, Medical Equipment and Devices (CECMED), authorized the emergency use of Abdala, the first anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccine developed and produced in Latin America.
Days before, on June 21, Marta Ayala Ávila, general director of the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) in charge of the development of the vaccine, announced that in the phase III clinical trial, with its three-dose schedule, it demonstrated a 92.28 percent effective in preventing symptomatic disease caused by the virus.
The result is due to the fact that, of the more than 48 thousand volunteers from the provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Granma and Guantánamo involved in the trial, 153 developed symptoms after 14 days of applying the last dose and had a positive PCR.
Another 142 of them corresponded to the placebo group and 11 to those who received the vaccine; none had had previous exposure to the viral infection, as this was confirmed by determination of total antibodies at the beginning of the investigation.