Cuba on Thursday continues the clinical trials on the vaccine candidate against Covid-19, known as Soberana 01 (Sovereign 01), with a second group of 20 volunteers aged 60 to 80.
The clinical trials are studies, an investigation carried out in volunteers, and this time they have two stages. In this first stage, volunteers have been divided into two groups, one of subjects aged 19 to 59, and another one of people aged 60 to 80, Dr. Sonia Perez said.
Each group, in turn, will be randomly divided into three subgroups due to the different doses of the vaccine, or for the control formula, which is the VA-MENGOC-BC vaccine, the specialist stated.
The vaccine candidate Soberana 01 is applied in two doses: the first day, we call it zero time, and then a second dose is administrated 28 days after. The investigation ends 28 days after the second dose is applied; that is, after 59 days, Perez noted.
The aim of this trial is to determine if the vaccine is safe so that it can be extended to a larger group of volunteers and then to the entire population, said the specialist, who was quoted by Granma newspaper.
Soberana 01 ranked 30 among the vaccine candidates in the world and is the first in Latin America and the Caribbean to receive authorization for clinical trials.
Some 20 Cubans aged 19 to 59 were vaccinated on August 24, thus starting the first stage of the clinical trials.