Cuban drug regulator gives emergency approval to Abdala COVID-19 vaccine

HAVANA: Cuba’s drug regulator announced on Friday it had granted emergency approval of the Abdala COVID-19 vaccine, which is already being deployed on the Caribbean island nation amid a surge in infections.

Approval by the Center for State Control of Medicines, Equipment and Medical Devices should help with the selling and licensing abroad of Abdala, which Cuba says has a 92.28% efficacy against the coronavirus. A second locally produced COVID-19 vaccine, Soberana 2, is expected to be approved in the next few weeks. Cuba said late on Thursday the two-shot vaccine delivered with a booster called Soberana Plus had proven 91.2% effective in late-stage clinical trials against the coronavirus.