Vietnam and Cuba agreed on Monday on the purchase by the Asian country of 10 million doses of the Cuban vaccine against the coronavirus Abdala, which it has just approved for emergency use.

"This morning, an agreement was signed for the supply and distribution of the Abdala vaccine to the Vietnamese people," Marta Ayala, director of the Center for Genetic and Biotechnological Engineering (CIGB), who developed this report told Cuban media. vaccine.

The first deal covers five million doses, but the Vietnamese government has already issued a resolution authorizing the purchase of 10 million doses of Abdala, Cuban media reported.

The deal comes on the occasion of Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc's three-day official visit, which concludes on Monday.

Vietnam on Saturday became the first country, outside Cuba, to approve emergency use of the Abdala vaccine, as it faces a serious resurgence of contaminations.

"Thank you very much, Cuba"

A technology transfer is also underway to enable it to produce the Cuban vaccine on its soil. "Thank you very much, Cuba (...) for the willingness to cooperate for the production of Abdala in Vietnam," President Nguyen said on Sunday during a meeting with Prime Minister Manuel Marrero. Besides Abdala, for whom Venezuela has already signed a supply contract for 12 million doses, Cuba has developed Soberana 02, approved for emergency use in Cuba and Iran (which also produces it), and given in combination with another local vaccine, Soberana Plus.

Argentina and Mexico have also expressed interest in acquiring doses of these vaccines.

Abdala and Soberana 02, based on a recombinant protein, the same technique on which the American Novavax and the French Sanofi are working, are more than 90% effective in preventing the onset of the disease with symptoms, according to Cuban scientists.

Cuba began on Thursday the first contacts with WHO experts to obtain recognition for its anti-Covid vaccines, a process that will "facilitate" their marketing abroad according to the state pharmaceutical group BioCubaFarma, even if their use in other countries depends only on the green light of national regulatory agencies.

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