Challenges of Developing a COVID-19 Vaccine in Cuba

By Osmel Ramirez Alvarez

HAVANA TIMES – This news has recently made frequent headlines in Cuban media, giving great importance to the Russian vaccine called Sputnik V. It has had the greatest and most positive coverage, along with the potential Cuban vaccine “Soberana”, which was certified a few days ago, to go into the experimental trial phase with humans.

This would be fine if it wasn’t a matter of partial, biased information. “Coincidentally”, practically nothing has been said about other vaccines that are being developed by other countries – China’s if anything – even though some of these are a lot more advanced than Russia’s. If any mention is made, then it is to detract from their importance, by writing or mentioning it right at the end, as if it were some lesser detail.

Launching such a chauvinistic campaign doesn’t help this allied country’s vaccine to come out any faster, because the rest of the world and drug regulatory bodies are well-informed and prepared. But it does do a great deal of damage to the Cuban people, because it misinforms and creates false hope about what is really happening.

It’s great that the Russians are doing so well with their trials. It’s perfect! It’s also great that Cuba might be able to produce a vaccine if it’s finally viable. It would be incredible and a great relief for Cubans, because I’m sure it would be a lot more affordable and ensure Cubans’ access to a quicker cure. That’s not the discussion here.

But what interest is there in denying, the Cuban people especially, advances of other vaccines or casting these to the sideline, such as Moderna’s in the US, Germany’s or the UK’s trial vaccines?

Two months ago, when the World Health Organization (WHO) was following the development of 140 vaccine projects worldwide, the famous Russian one today wasn’t registered by this organization even amongst the top 10 of the over 200 in the study. Nobody can explain why, but maybe it was because this was kept on the hush for some reason. Yet today, it is being reported as one of the top 6, of the 149 being followed.  

It seems that the most advanced continue to be the US vaccine by Moderna pharmaceutical company and Oxford University/AstraZemeca’s in the UK. They are followed by two Chinese vaccines which continue to be advancing, with great results too: one developed by the CanSino Biologics company and the other by Sinopharm/Sinovac Biotech China companies. These are followed by a German vaccine, being trialled by CureVac. Then, finally, it’s the Russian vaccine being developed by Moscow’s Sechenovsky University.

When “Sputnik V” is mentioned in the Cuban press, it is acclaimed more than in Russia’s own state, where national pride could justify it. Such effusiveness and an excess of triumphalism with this vaccine (which hasn’t been proven to guarantee success yet, just like any other), is undoubtedly the result of our country’s anti-Western policy, with a greater emphasis on anti-US dogma. It would be stupid to say it´s anti-capitalist, as China and Russia are also capitalist powers.

Efforts worldwide to develop a COVID-19 vaccine began immediately after the first cases of the viral disease were reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan, in December last year. Experts agree that a vaccine could provide lasting protecting for humans, which would enable lockdown measures to be lifted more quickly and safely.

The race to find this magic cure is full of obstacles, though, and one wrong move could have catastrophic consequences, like violating established protocols, which ensure that it is as safe as it can be for the general population.

After a laboratory manages to design a vaccine, it must undergo a long and rigorous process until it can be proven to be both safe and effective. There are at least three phases to a clinical trial, after phase zero (0), or preclinical, which includes in vitro and animal testing. The three clinical phases are:

1. 20 to 100 volunteers. (This focuses on confirming that the vaccine doesn’t present a threat to human health).
2. Up to several hundred people. (People’s immune response are assessed, as are short-term side effects).
3. Several thousand volunteers take part in this phase. (Efficacy and safety results are reinforced and statistics are compared to the non-vaccinated population).

Vaccines sometimes enter a fourth phase, where the same phase 3 tests are carried out, to make sure they work. It’s common for these studies to last several years, even over a decade, and once they are finalized and certified, it normally takes up to a year and a half for them to begin to be used.

However, during this pandemic, researchers have said that they could have their vaccines ready in just 12-18 months. Which sounds wonderful and hopeful, but it is no guarantee of their success, just like the excessive media propaganda in favor of one on the other in Cuba, isn’t either.

It’s worth highlighting, for the sake of caution, that the historic rate of “failed attempts” of experimental vaccines, between the preclinical and clinical phase, stands at 93% (according to Jerome Kim, director of the International Vaccine Institute, quoted from BBC News). Let’s just hope that luck and speed accompany us with this vaccine against the new coronavirus, to stop this pandemic.

Related post: When a Vaccine Comes or Appears in Cuba