Cuban vaccine shows efficacy of over 90% after booster dose

CUBAN vaccine shows the efficacy of over 90 per cent after a booster dose. The Finlay Vaccine Institute (IFV) of Cuba reported this Thursday, July 8, that the combination of two doses of its vaccine Soberana 02 with a booster dose of Soberana Plus has shown the efficacy of 91.2 per cent to face Covid-19.

Soberana 02 and Soberana Plus -developed by IFV- are two of the five coronavirus vaccine projects being investigated by scientific institutions in Cuba, as reported by Andalucia Informacion. Preliminary analyzes of the third and final phase of clinical trials of Soberana 02, which was carried out with 44,010 volunteers, had shown the efficacy of 62% of this vaccine formula that combines the virus antigen and tetanus toxoid to stimulate the response of the immune system. The director of the Finlay Institute, Vicente Vérez, explained that the efficacy in the three-dose scheme was determined in the presence of the South African Beta variant of, when presenting this new research result to the Cuban president, Miguel Díaz- Canel, according to state media on the island.

The World Health Organization establishes that for a vaccine candidate to be considered a vaccine, it must demonstrate an efficacy equal to or greater than 50%. Based on these results, the Center for State Control of Medicines, Equipment and Medical Devices (Cecmed), the Cuban regulatory body, can formalize the registration of Soberana 02 plus Soberana Plus as a vaccine and issue an authorization for its emergency use for future mass vaccination of the Cuban population. With Soberana 02 clinical trials are currently being carried out to evaluate the safety of this formula in Cuban children and adolescents.