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The Guardian 4. maj:
Cuba punches above its weight to develop its own
Covid vaccines
Island hit by biggest economic crisis since the collapse of the Soviet
Union has two vaccines in phase three clinical trials
Hit by the double whammy of US sanctions and a pandemic,
Cuba
is going through its gravest
economic crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Pharmacy shelves are barren. People queue
for
hours to buy chicken. It’s hard to find bread.
And yet this island under siege could become the smallest country in the world to develop its own
coronavirus vaccines. Of the 27 coronavirus vaccines in final stage testing around the world,
two
are Cuban.
“To have our sovereignty we need our own vaccines,” said Dr Vicente Vérez, director of the Finlay
Institute, which has developed Sovereign
2, the most advanced of the country’s five vaccine
candidates. “In nine months we have gone from an idea to a vaccine in phase three clinical trials.”
About 44,000 volunteers in Havana are currently participating in phase three trials for Sovereign 2.
A similar number in the eastern city of Santiago are volunteering for phase three for Abdala, a
vaccine named after a poem by José Martí, the island’s official “national hero”.
Running alongside the clinical studies is an “interventional study” in which 150,000
health workers
in Havana are now being vaccinated.
Cuba’s “biological front” was established in 1981 –
just five years after the incorporation of the
world’s first biotech company, Genentech. At the heart of today’s drive for a vaccine are the island’s
top scientists, many of whom were trained in the former Soviet Union. These internationally mobile
polyglots have every opportunity to emigrate (and many do); those who chose to work on the island
are almost invariably old school believers.
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At a recent press conference Dr Vérez explained what drives him by quoting Ernesto “Ché”
Guevara. “The true revolutionary,” he said, “is guided by a great feeling of love”.
Dr Gerardo Guillén, who heads up development of two vaccines at the Center for Genetic
Engineering and Biotechnology, is a chocoholic who has had to do without his favourite fix for over
 URU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 214: Henvendelse af 17/5-21 fra Dansk Cubansk Forening om USA's blokade mod Cuba og Danmarks forbindelser med Cuba
a year (there is none in the shops). His £200 a month salary is a hundred times less what he could
earn abroad.
“We do have offers,” said Dr Mitchell Valdés-Sosa,
a Chicago-born neurologist who sits on the
country’s coronavirus taskforce. “But we prefer to stay because we feel a commitment to the
development of our country. We’re not working to make some chief executive obscenely rich; we’re
working to make people healthier.”
Such idealism is no protection from bitter geopolitical realities.
The US embargo on Cuba restricts the medical equipment the island can import. The different
Cuban research teams working on the vaccines share just one spectrometer
–
a machine essential for
quality control
– powerful enough to analyse a vaccine’s chemical structure. But since the
spectrometer’s British manufacturer, Micromass, was bought out by an
American firm, Waters, they
haven’t been able to buy spare parts directly.
While UN human rights rapporteurs called on the US to
lift sanctions on the island during the
pandemic,
over the past 12 months the embargo has been
ramped up.
And since the outgoing Trump administration put Cuba on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism
in January, just finding a bank willing to process payments has become
a major problem.
“The US is trying to starve Cuba into submission,” said Valdés-Sosa. “It’s not only that it’s difficult
to buy things directly from the US. It’s also that all these sanctions that the Trump administration
put in place have dried up many sources of revenue.”
Cuba reported 12,225 confirmed cases and 146 deaths last year
– among the hemisphere’s lowest
case and mortality rates. But in November came a blunder. When commercial flights finally
resumed after seven long months, for a few weeks the government did not require visitors to take
PCR tests before boarding planes. The effect was lethal: thousands of Cuban Americans came from
Covid hotspots like Florida to hug, kiss and dance with their families over the Christmas period,
leading to a surge in cases.
More cases were reported January alone than in the whole of 2020, and the island is now averaging
1,000 confirmed cases a day.
With around 100,000 Cubans having received the jab so far, the island is behind the average Latin
American vaccine rollout of 12% of people having received at least one dose. And with no vaccine
yet fully approved for use by the island’s regulator, critics say the Communist party’s decision not
to join Covax, the UN-backed mechanism to distribute Covid-19 doses fairly around the world, was
arrogant and has left them needlessly exposed.
Cuba aims to manufacture 100m doses of Sovereign 2 this year
–
enough for the population with a
surplus to export.
 URU, Alm.del - 2020-21 - Bilag 214: Henvendelse af 17/5-21 fra Dansk Cubansk Forening om USA's blokade mod Cuba og Danmarks forbindelser med Cuba
If and when production hurdles are cleared, the logistics of distribution should be a strong point: the
island has a well-developed infrastructure of local community clinics, and the
highest doctor-to-
patient ratio in the world.
Cuban scientists are confident the widespread vaccination will be attained this year, and say Cuba
will be among the first countries in the hemisphere to achieve this.
“When you have everything, you don’t have to think so much.” said Dr Guillén, “But when you
have difficulties, you have to think up new ways to innovate.”