Cuba Begins Exporting Vaccines to Venezuela and Vietnam

Locally-produced vaccine in Cuba administered in Venezuela and Vietnam (Creative Commons).

Cuba has begun exporting Abdala, its nationally developed  COVID-19 vaccine, making Cuba the only Caribbean country to develop a vaccine.Vietnam and Venezuela are the first countries to receive the Cuban vaccine. Cuba now aims for official approval from the World Health Organization (WHO) to expand its exports to countries that do not accept unapproved vaccines. The first of the three doses of the vaccine has already been administered to more than 10,000 people at a military base in Caracas, Venezuela.

International associations criticize Venezuela’s adoption of Abdala because there is a lack of published research on the vaccine. Jarbas Barbosa, the deputy director for the  Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), a branch of the World Health Organization (WHO), commented that “vaccines… must meet the same requirements… present a dossier that demonstrates… that the vaccine is safe and efficacious.” 

Despite the wait for the WHO’s approval, the Abdala vaccine reports success. However, the National Academy of Medicine of Venezuela is concerned that the vaccine is being distributed to Venezuelans with a “lack of research on safety and efficacy.” In contrast to the Russian Sputnik V and Chinese Sinopharm vaccines, both of which are WHO-approved and backed by published research, Abdala has no “international regulatory agency.” For a vaccine to be accepted for distribution, it must go through all four phases of vaccine development, and show “a dossier that demonstrates the quality of production,” according to Barbosa.

Cuba has developed a total of three vaccines, two of which are currently in Phase 3. This phase involves mass-distributing the vaccine to thousands of people to test its efficacy and safety. The two Phase 3 vaccines are Soberana 2, meaning “sovereignty,” and Abdala, which is named after the poem “Abdala” by Cuban independence fighter José Martí. The Soberana vaccine is not yet exported because it only registered a 62 percent efficacy rate in tests compared to Abdala’s 92 percent efficacy. Advocates argue that the vaccines are Cuba’s attempt to fight COVID-19 with its own hands and demonstrate the ability of the small island country to cure and protect its own citizens. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said “We are united, Cuba and Venezuela, in building solutions for the Caribbean and Latin America… I thank them for including Venezuela in these trials.” If the WHO approves Abdala, Cuba will be among a select group of countries that has developed vaccines against COVID-19.