Photo source: NatalieMaynor – CC BY 2.0
Cuba’s socialist approach to developing vaccines against COVID-19 differs markedly from that of the world’s capitalist nations. Cuban production of four vaccines is based on science and is dedicated to saving the lives of all Cubans and international solidarity.
The New York Times report on global vaccine programs shows that 67 vaccines have passed human testing; 20 of them are in the final testing phase or have already completed them. The United States, China, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea and India each produced many vaccines; most vaccine-producing countries are offering one or two vaccines.
Cuba is the only vaccine manufacturer in Latin America; there is none in Africa. The only state entities that produce the main vaccines are those in Cuba and Russia.
The Finlay Vaccine Institute of Cuba has produced two COVID-19 vaccines. The trials for one of them, called Sovereign I, focus on protecting people previously infected with COVID-19. The antibody levels of some of them have turned out to be low and the vaccine can give a boost.
The other vaccine, Sovereign II, is about to enter final tests in humans. To verify protection, these tests require tens of thousands of individuals, half receiving the vaccine and the other half receiving a placebo vaccine. Cuba’s population is relatively small, 11 million people, too small to produce enough infected people in the short time required to test the protective effect of the vaccine. That is why Sovereign II will be tested in Iran.
100 million doses of Sovereign II are being prepared, enough to immunize all 11 million Cubans, starting in March or April. The remaining 70 million doses will go to Vietnam, Iran, Pakistan, India, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua. Sovereign II “will be the ALBA vaccine,” explained Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, referring to the solidarity alliance established in 2004 by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Cuban Fidel Castro.
“Cuba’s strategy to commercialize the vaccine represents a combination of what is good for humanity and the impact on global health. We are not a multinational where the financial objective comes first, ”says Vicente Vérez Bencomo, director of the Finlay Vaccine Institute in Cuba. The revenue generated by the sale of vaccines abroad will pay for health, education and pensions in Cuba, as well as for exports of medical services and medicines.
Cuba’s Center for Genetic and Biotechnology Engineering is developing two other COVID-19 vaccines; One, called “Mambisa” (meaning a female combatant in Spain’s liberation wars), is administered via the nasal route, as is Cuba’s hepatitis B vaccine. The other vaccine, called “Abdala” (character in a poem by Jose Marti), is administered intramuscularly. Both vaccines are involved in the first tests.
Cuba was ready
Cuban education emphasizes science and technology. In the 1990s, Cuba accounted for 11% of Latin American scientists with a doctorate. Cuban scientists work at the approximately 50 biomedical research and production facilities that together form the Cuban state-owned BioCubaFarma Corporation, which produces vaccines, medicines, medical examinations and medical equipment. It makes 60% of the drugs used in Cuba and 8 of the 12 vaccines.
Cuba previously produced a pioneering vaccine that prevents potentially fatal infections caused by type B meningococcus. Cuba has developed a genetically modified hepatitis B vaccine and a vaccine that provides palliative treatment for lung cancer. A vaccine developed in Cuba offers protection against infections, especially childhood meningitis, caused by the bacterium Hemophilus Influenza type B.
When designing vaccines, Cuban scientists relied on family technology.
To provide an immunological extra, the Sovereign II vaccine antigen from Cuba is mixed with the tetanus toxoid, as was done with the vaccine against Cuba’s Hemophilus influenza. As with other vaccines, scientists used a segment of the virus protein – here the COVID-19 virus – to form an antigen to stimulate protective antibodies. In contrast, the US Pfizer and Moderna vaccines contain all of the viral protein, not a segment. This protein contains “genetic instructions” that enter human cells, causing them to “produce peak proteins, which are then released into the body” where they trigger antibodies.
Observers suggest that this innovative technology from the USA may be less safe than that used in Cuban vaccines. Not requiring extremely cold storage, as vaccines in the USA do, Cuban vaccines are suitable for areas without adequate refrigeration capacity.
Cuba’s biomedical production sector has also created drugs to treat Covid-19 infection. Interferon, an antiviral agent developed in Cuba, produced in China and used around the world, prevents many patients infected with Covid from becoming seriously ill. The Cuban anti-inflammatory Jusvinza, used to treat autoimmune diseases, and Cuba’s monoclonal antibody Itolizumab, which moderates exaggerated immune responses, are effective in reducing Covid-19 deaths.
The other way
The US approach to the production and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines is based on private initiative, although the US government has delivered billions of dollars to pharmaceutical companies to produce vaccines free of charge to recipients. The companies have contracts with buyers abroad.
According to forbes.com in November 2020, ‘If Moderna’s [vaccine] you can get FDA approval and you can make enough doses, your revenue can be almost $ 35 billion higher … than … in the past 12 months. ”Another report suggests that,“ Companies (Pfizer and Moderna) can earn billions of dollars in profits from their COVID vaccines this year. [and] there will be more profits in later years. “Companies” claim the rights to large amounts of intellectual property “.
With corporations in charge, the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines is distorted. On January 27, “about 66.83 million doses were sent, of which 93% were delivered to only 15 countries”. In Latin America, only Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Chile secured adequate purchase contracts to immunize entire populations. Business contracts with African nations allow only 30% of Africans to be immunized in 2021. Significant immunization has not yet started there.
The division of wealth determines the distribution. Epidemiologists at Duke University report that, “Although high-income countries represent only 16% of the world population, they currently hold 60% of the vaccines for COVID-19 that have been purchased so far.” Cuban journalist Randy Alonso reports that only “27% of the total population in low and middle income countries can be vaccinated this year”.
“The world is on the verge of catastrophic moral failure – and the price of that failure will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the poorest countries in the world, ”said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director of the World Health Organization, on 18 January. He warned that “some countries and companies continue to prioritize bilateral deals, bypassing COVAX, raising prices and trying to jump to the front of the queue”.
WHO initiated the global collaboration of COVAX vaccines to ensure poor nations’ access to COVID-19 vaccines. The 190 registered countries agreed to obtain vaccines through COVAX. Rich countries would provide funds to COVAX to allow 90 poor countries to receive free vaccines. COVAX foresees the distribution of two billion doses, enough to immunize only 25% of the populations of poor nations during 2021.
Problems include: wealthy nations request vaccines independent of COVAX; they buy more vaccines than they need; manufacturers set prices; and prices are secret, variable and very high.
Most of the other COVID-19 vaccine-producing countries differ from Cuba for their profits and because they are complicit in the American economic blockade against Cuba. Pursuing routine international business, they all easily conform to United States regulations through which that cruel policy is applied. More specifically, the blockade of the United States hinders Cuba’s vaccination efforts and they remain silent.
“We don’t have all the raw materials and supplies in Cuba that we need for the unprecedented scale of production that vaccination of our entire population requires,” explained Dagmar García-Rivera, Research Director at the Finlay Vaccine Institute in Cuba. “They have to be bought and for that we need financing. This becomes infinitely more difficult with the US embargo … The acquisition of the necessary reagents for research and the raw materials for production is a challenge that we face daily ”.
In facing the pandemic, Cuba exhibits attention to details that suggest a level of care and concern that is not easily matched elsewhere. For example, the Cubadebate.cu website, friendly to the Cuban government, provides a daily and detailed update on the impact of the infection. His January 27 report provides data on cities, provinces, the country and the world – and the country’s intensive care units. Readers learn that out of 43 intensive care patients that day, 16 were in a critical, stable or unstable state, and 27 were in a “serious” state.
All 43 cases are reviewed, starting with: “Cuban citizen, 75 years old, from Alquízar, in Artemisa, already with arterial hypertension and ischemic heart disease, who is afebrile, on mechanical ventilation, is hemodynamically stable … with adequate CO2 gasometry ), is improving radiologically with inflammatory lesions on the right [lung] base – reported as critical, but stable. ”The cases of four Cubans who died that day are also presented.
Fighting a pandemic in Cuba, it is known, is no accident. Nor is the health of the Cuban people.