Cuba has achieved important and recognized scientific results despite the fact that the blockade imposed by the US government was intensified in an unprecedented way during the COVID-19 pandemic, says Cuban envoy to India.
Alejandro Simancas Marín, ambassador of Cuba to India, tells Financial Express Online, “Cuba is denied the right to acquire technologies, raw materials, reagents, diagnostic means, medicines, devices, equipment and spare parts necessary for the better functioning of its National Health System, which must be obtained in geographically distant markets or through a third country, with an increase in costs. This has had a high impact on the health of the Cuban population.”
Following are excerpts from an interaction with Alejandro Simancas Marín, ambassador of Cuba to India:
How has the blockade impacted?
Furthermore, the blockade prevents the access to medical technologies of US provenance or with more than 10 percent of components coming from that country, which has a negative impact on health care. From April to December 2020, the blockade caused losses to the healthcare sector in the order of 200 million USD, a figure that represents 38 million more than what was reported in the previous period.
Medical brigades to fight against COVID-19
In addition to the economic losses, there was a campaign to discredit and hinder the international medical cooperation offered by Cuba; however, they could not prevent the presence of 57 brigades of the “Henry Reeve” Contingent in 40 countries, with more than 4,900 health professionals.The experience in disaster management and infectious disease containment accumulated by Cuban doctors made it possible to send medical brigades to these countries to help in the fight against COVID-19.
Fight against COVID-19
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Cuba had to redesign and create its own pulmonary ventilators for the hospital care of patients, as well as to produce three reliable and effective vaccines against COVID-19, due to the experience accumulated by the Cuban scientific community.
How did your country achieve this?
Cuba has accumulated decades of scientific investment, research, discovery and innovation, as well as professional training and increased production capacity. The government has invested heavily in science and technology since the 1980s, and is currently working on a portfolio of 101 biopharmaceuticals under development, 32 percent of which are vaccines. Likewise, it has a health system charged with administering it, in a safe and timely manner, to as many people as possible. Our country has decades of experience in this regard, including a national pediatric immunization program where 98 percent of children under 5 are immunized against 13 diseases.
When the first COVID-19 cases were detected on the Island in March 2020, Cuba harnessed this experience, making a hard tack towards developing its own vaccines. Two of the main protagonists in the country’s biotechnology development, the Finlay Vaccine Institute (IFV) and the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center (CIGB), both with several groundbreaking preventive and therapeutic vaccines in their portfolios, led the search for a vaccine
Actually, Cuba has three vaccines authorized for emergency use, Soberana 02 and Soberana Plus developed by IFV, and Abdala, developed by CIGB. Schedules with these vaccines have demonstrated more than 90 percent efficacy in clinical trials and after regulatory approval for emergency use, became the backbone of Cuban COVID-19 vaccination efforts. A fourth vaccine, Mambisa (CIGB), administered nasally, and a fifth, Soberana 01 (IFV) is still in clinical trials. These vaccines have become a source of national pride and the scientists and health professionals involved in this process represent heroes in the Cuban popular imagination.
My country currently administers Abdala, Soberana02 and Soberana Plus. Abdala is a 3 dose protocol, Soberana02 combined with Soberana Plus is a 3 dose protocol for children, and Soberana Plus stand alone is a 1 dose protocol for convalescents of COVID-19.
This diversity of protocols matters a great deal as it hugely complicates the comparison of Cuba with the rest of the world. The country was able to achieve the third highest COVID-19 vaccination rate in the world. Around early summer 2021 it accelerated its vaccination campaign and managed to raise coverage very rapidly. By now, more than 90 per cent of the Cuban population is fully vaccinated and around 50 percent of the population has received a booster dose.
Vaccination in Cuba
We are the first country to carry out a massive, nationwide vaccination campaign for children and teens. And we are the first and still today only country to have vaccinated the entire pediatric population as young as 2 years old, and through age 18. We have also vaccinated convalescent children and adolescents in the same age range. The effectiveness of the child vaccination campaign is demonstrated by the excellent results obtained.
Where are these vaccines being administered?
The Abdala vaccine has been authorized for use in various countries of the region including Venezuela, Nicaragua and Mexico, and elsewhere like Vietnam. This involves a rigorous evaluation process by each country’s regulatory authority, reviewing the data, production facilities and more before the vaccines can be purchased or administered. Besides, Cuba asked the World Health Organization to approve its vaccines, an important step towards making them available throughout the developing world.
We are pursuing this process in various countries. Our approach is based on helping address health problems in these nations and what they need to do, not to profit from illness. Cuba potentially has the capacity to produce tens of millions of doses of vaccines, but that capacity is limited by the blockade, which has made logistics very difficult.
India-Cuba bilateral cooperation
In the context of COVID-19, Cuba appreciates the gestures of solidarity through donations that India has offered us. Both countries have maintained historical relations of friendship which are based on solidarity and cooperation. Cuba continues strengthening the bilateral relationship with India, both at the level of political dialogue, the official exchange of visits, in the multilateral space, as well as a greater economic and commercial relationship.
Cooperation in the Pharmaceutical sector?
Our institutions in the bio-pharmaceutical sector maintain commercial and economic relationships with similar ones in India and there is accumulated experience in this sector.
Are there possibilities of tying up with India for vaccines?
Actually, we are working together to identify the potentialities that exist in this sector to strengthen relations and to take advantage of the experience of our countries in pandemic control, the organization of the health system, the treatments that have been effective, vaccines, the Cuban experience in international medical cooperation and others.
We can also offer some Cuban products that are unique such as the vaccine against lung cancer, the treatment to avoid amputations of the diabetic foot, the treatment against vitiligo, among others.
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