Cuba defends right to science for development.

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#COVID-19 pandemic., #Cuba, #Cuba Saves, #Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez on Tuesday advocated for the global right to scientific progress to help prevent pandemics such as Covid-19 and guarantee a world’s peace.

On his Twitter account, the foreign minister welcomed the commemoration today of World Science Day for Peace and Development.

‘On World Science Day for Peace and Development, we reiterate the right to benefit from scientific and technological progress to preserve life, defeat epidemics such as #Covid-19 and guarantee a world’s peace and sustainable development in which no one is left back,’ Rodriguez wrote.

Cuba’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment posted on Twitter the island’s scientific contributions to obtain a vaccine candidate to fight the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, causing Covid-19, ‘Soberana 1,’ an example of applied science for the good and development of humanity. We celebrate on November 10 #ScienceDay for peace and development.’

The event begins a week dedicated to the subject that has been celebrated across the world since 2002, in order to recall the commitment made at the World Conference on Science, held in Budapest in 1999.

Cuba’s medicine will be tested in the US, Mexico and Brazil.

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#Collaboration with the India's BIOCON company, #Covid-19, #Cuba, #Cuba Saves, #Cuba's medicine, #India

The monoclonal antibody Itolizumab received authorization to start a phase III clinical trial in Covid-19 patients in the US, Mexico and Brazil, reported on Wednesday Cuba’s Center for Molecular Immunology (CIM).

Developed by that institution in collaboration with the India’s BIOCON company, this trial will consolidate the scientific pieces of evidence that supports the effective inclusion of the drug in the Cuba’s protocol for the Covid-19 treatment, warns the CIM on Twitter.

Winner of one of the National Awards of the Cuban Academy of Sciences in 2014, in the Biomedical Sciences category, the product has an anti-inflammatory and immuno-regulatory effect.

Recently, Cuban researchers also shared on social networks an article published in the Gerontology Journal about the country’s experience of Itolizumab’s use in elderly Covid-19 patients.

According to the text, the study combined the timely use of this monoclonal antibody with other antiviral and anticoagulant therapies to reduce the worsening of Covid-19 and mortality.

Phase-1 of clinical trials with Soberana 02 candidate begins in Cuba.

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#COVID-19 pandemic., #Cuba, #Cuba Saves, #Soberana 02

Phase I of clinical trials of Cuba’s second Covid-19 vaccine candidate, Soberana 02, is beginning on Monday, confirmed Dagmar Garcia, Research Director of the Finlay Vaccine Institute.

In her Twitter account, the specialist stressed that ‘government-health-science integration can do everything when the priority is the health of the people.’

‘The vaccination begins on Monday. We will add more Cubans with #Soberana in their arms … Everything is ready to start the clinical trial of Soberana 02 … We will arrive and win,’ said the scientist on the social network.

The director of the Finlay Institute, Vicente Verez, explained recently that Soberana 02 is an unprecedented innovative drug among all those developed to fight the SARS-CoV-2.

The novelty of this new candidate is that it is a conjugate vaccine, in which the virus antigen, the receptor-binding domain (RBD), is chemically bound to the tetanus toxoid.

Journals disclose Cuban contributions to fight against Covid-19.

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#COVID-19 pandemic., #Cuba, #Cuba Saves

 Scientific journals are currently disclosing Cuban contributions to fight against Covid-19 because of Cuba’s medicine prestige worldwide.

 

Cuban researchers shared on social networks an article published in the Gerontology Journal about the experience of using the monoclonal antibody Anti-CD6 (Itolizumab) in elderly Covid-19 patients in their country.

The article refers to the results of a study that combined the timely use of Itolizumab with other antiviral and anticoagulant therapies to reduce the worsening of Covid-19 disease and mortality.

‘The humanized Itolizumab antibody emerges as a therapeutic alternative for Covid-19 patients and suggests its likely use in others with cytokine release syndrome due to other pathologies,’ the text indicates.

Preserving life is priority in fight against Covid-19, Cuban PM asserts

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# Top-priority in the Covid-19 pandemic is to preserve people´s lives, #COVID-19 pandemic., #Cuba, #Cuba Saves

Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero on Tuesday reaffirmed the country’s top-priority in the Covid-19 pandemic is to preserve people´s lives.

 

Manuel Marrero, during a virtual meeting with President Miguel Díaz-Canel and Vice President Salvador Valdés Mesa, explained to the National Assembly of People’s Power deputies the government plan to fight the pandemic.

During the meeting, Manuel Marrero stated Cuba adapted its work strategy based on acquired knowledge, experiences, scientists´ views and other elements, but the human being has always been our top-priority.

The three key objectives of the updated plan are to start the new normality gradually and asymmetrically, to mitigate the economic impact due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the tightening of US blockade, as well as to develop capacities to fight possible epidemiological events that might arise.

Cuba presents second vaccine candidate against Covid for evaluation

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#COVID-19 pandemic., #Cuba, #Cuba presents second vaccine for evaluation, #Cuba Saves, #The Finlay Vaccine Institute of Cuba, Solidarity

The Finlay Vaccine Institute of Cuba presented a second vaccine candidate against Covid-19 to the Center for State Control of Medicines, Equipment and Medical Devices (Cecmed), it transcends today.

 

According to the Finlay Research Director, Dagmar García, explained in her Twitter account, ‘Soberana 02 is based on the conjugate vaccine platform and the antecedent of Chem-Hib Vaccine strategy based on two candidates against Covid-19 ‘.

Quimi-Hib is the Cuban conjugated immunizer against Haemophilus influenza type b bacteria, used for the prevention of children against said bacterial agent, which causes meningitis and pneumonia in the first years of life.

For his part, the director of the Finlay Institute, Vicente Vérez, affirmed in a recent interview with the Granma newspaper that, ‘Soberana 02 is an innovative drug, as it has no precedent among all those developed to face the new coronavirus.’

According to the expert, the novelty of this new candidate consists of being a conjugate vaccine, in which the virus antigen, the receptor-binding domain (RBD), is chemically bound to the tetanus toxoid.

Both Soberana 01 and Soberana 02, Cuban drugs in process against Covid-19 are molecular or subunit vaccines, Vérez indicated.

‘They mean that the vaccine antigen is a copy molecule of the molecule present in the virus and to obtain it, it is necessary to have the genetic information of this viral protein, and from a process of genetic engineering, it is programmed into a cell of higher body called CHO ‘, he specified.

In his statements to Granma, the manager asserted that they hope with Soberana 02 to demonstrate its safety, based on the effectiveness history of other conjugated and previously used drugs.

‘We also want to achieve a powerful and long-lasting protective immune response, as with Soberana 01,’ he said.

He also highlighted that both candidates are based on technological platforms for which there are precedents of vaccines in Cuba and in the world, whose purpose is to treat infectious diseases.

Soberana 02 completed all the required research phases in experimental animals, demonstrating a powerful and effective immune response against the virus.

Another Covid-19 vaccine registered in Cuba.

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#COVID-19 pandemic., #Cuba, #Cuba Saves, #New Covid-19 vaccine on Cuba

The Cuban Public Registry of Clinical Trials registered another Covid-19 vaccine candidate, whose process to include volunteers, according to the official program, begins this Monday.

 

This second project, called Soberana 01 A, will be carried out in parallel to the first trial registered by the Finlay Institute of Vaccines, aimed to evaluate its safety, according to data posted on the website of that entity.

Included into the Public Registry on Saturday, another objective of the new research is to explore the immunogenicity of different formulations of the vaccine candidates FINLAY FR-1 and FINLAY FR-1A in different schemes.

Analogous to the first trial, the study entering Phase I is randomly and double-blind. It includes 60 volunteers of both sexes aged 19 to 59 and are divided into three groups.

The first group will receive intramuscular high doses of FINLAY FR-1 plus adjuvant, a treatment that will last 28 days, while the second group will also receive the same doses of the new vaccine candidate in the same period of time.

Cuba continues monitoring children recovered from Covid-19.

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#COVID-19 pandemic., #Cuba, #Cuba Saves

The Cuban Ministry of Public Health continues today at the national level a cardiovascular evaluation of children who were positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19.

Most of those infected in pediatric ages did not show major complications, but in some cases they presented cardiovascular alterations, exemplified in myocarditis or variations of the heart muscle, and pericarditis, considered as an inflammation and irritation of the membrane that surrounds the heart.

They also – underlines the Granma newspaper – suffered heart rhythm disorders, which shows the importance of their monitoring in the convalescent phase.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon supports Nobel Peace Prize to Cuban doctors.

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#COVID-19 pandemic., #Cuba, #Cuba Saves, #France, #Jean-Luc Mélenchon, #Nobel Peace Prize, Cuban Doctors

The leader of La France Insumise (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon, supported today the request to present the Nobel Peace Prize to Cuban medical brigades Henry Reeve and recognized their contribution in the fight against the Covid-19.

Speaking to Prensa Latina, the deputy for the southern department of Bouches-du-Rhône highlighted the work carried out at the service of humanity by the island in the current circumstances, imposed by the pandemic.

More than 3,700 Cuban health professionals arrived in around 40 countries in recent months to help national and local authorities in the fight against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, as happened in Italy and Andorra.

The two-time presidential candidate has previously recognized the internationalist solidarity of the largest of the Antilles and repudiated the US blockade.

Moving to the new normal, our responsibility does not change.

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# 12 provinces and the Isle of Youth move to the “new normal”, #COVID-19 pandemic., #Cuba, #Cuba Saves

We are taking another step forward today, but not just any step, a decisive one in our battle against the pandemic and for the immediate future of Cuba.

Following months of intense, uninterrupted work, long hours of analysis, gaining experience and constantly improving measures, we are implementing a concept that we have talked about a great deal, that must now serve to support the optimal, organic functioning of the country: the new normal.

Several elements distinguish the move to this stage (for 12 Cuban provinces and the Isle of Youth special municipality), but none defines it better than the adoption of a new behavior code and life style. In other words, it is a matter of rethinking our daily lives, of incorporating all the learning that has allowed us to reach this point, not as temporary measures, but rather essential routines.

After what we have experienced, no one should be able to underestimate the danger that the virus represents. This people has enough information to know we must avoid over-confidence.

Everyone who heard the President and Prime Minister outline the new plan on Cuban television knows that leaving aside individual precaution and collective responsibility, or dismantling the health practices that prevent the spread of the epidemic, are not part of the new normal.