"The slight delay that we have experienced in our strategy for presenting (the file) to the WHO is linked to an internal element on our side, our decision to move to a new (production) site which will be the one evaluated during of the process," said Eduardo Martinez, director of the state-owned BioCubaFarma group, during a press conference.
In February, Mr. Martinez announced that Cuba would submit to the WHO in early March the dossier for the Abdala vaccine, manufactured by BioCubaFarma.
Cuba, which has been manufacturing part of its vaccines since the 1980s, has designed three vaccines against Covid-19, including Abdala and Soberana which have been used on its territory but also in countries such as Venezuela, Nicaragua, Vietnam and Iran.
These vaccines are based on a recombinant protein, the same technique used by the American companies Novavax and French Sanofi.
According to Martinez, in March BioCubaFarma informed the WHO that it had developed a new industrial complex in Mariel, 50 kilometers west of Havana, to manufacture its vaccines on an industrial scale as required by the organization. .
Inaugurated in December, it is still “in the phase of adjustment and start-up”, he specified.
"This created a delay in the documentation" and "this is one of the elements that slowed down the process".
So far, the country has manufactured "more than 80 million" doses of its vaccines, of which "more than 70 million" have already been injected in Cuba and abroad, according to a schedule that usually involves three doses, has he pointed out.
Cuba has already fully vaccinated 89.07% of its 11.2 million inhabitants and has seen the number of cases and deaths drop sharply in recent months.
This country has recorded a total of 1,100,938 cases, of which 8,522 were fatal.
On Thursday, it announced just 329 cases in the past 24 hours and no deaths.
© 2022 AFP