Cuba has registered four vaccine candidates against Covid-19 that are currently on clinical trials, after Mambisa and Abdala, developed by the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center (CIGB), were authorized for this phase of the study.
According to information released on social networks, the regulatory entity of Medicines, Equipment and Medical Devices authorized the start of clinical trials on those two vaccine candidates.

The former, called Mambisa (CIGB 669), will be administered nasally; while the latter, named Abdala (CIGB 66), will be injected.

CIGB 669 explores the nasal route and constitutes a subunit vaccine that uses the AgnHB protein as an antigen, with the ability to stimulate the immune response at the mucosal level, the first barrier against a pathogen and in systemic behaviors.

It was named Mambisa, as a tribute to the women who fought in the wars for independence in the second half of the 19th century.

The second of those vaccine candidates and the fourth from Cuba uses yeast as a receptor binding domain protein and alumina as an adjuvant, scientists explained.

Named Abdala, in honor of the first dramatic poem written by the Cuban intellectual Jose Marti (1869), the study will aim to assess the vaccine’s safety in a first stage.

On administering Abdala, experts aim to examine its safety, and the immune response capacity using a larger group of volunteers.

Cuba was the first country in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the 30th worldwide, to receive authorization to begin clinical trials on a vaccine candidate against Covid-19, called Soberana 01, in August.

in early November, the World Health Organization (WHO) included a second Cuban vaccine candidate (Soberana 02) on the official site of projects on clinical trials against the disease.

Both candidates, developed by the Finlay Vaccine Institute, are on the list of 47 registered vaccine candidates worldwide and are moving positively in human clinical trials.

In parallel, the CIGB was working on these other two projects against the new coronavirus.

Source: Prensa Latina