Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
Havana, Jan 20. - In a meeting of experts and scientists, partial results of clinical studies with the biotechnological product Jusvinza were presented for patients in post-acute and chronic stages affected by the Chikungunya virus.
"Here there are results," expressed the First Secretary of the Communist Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, on Monday afternoon, regarding the partial achievements stemming from clinical studies with the Cuban biotechnological product, Jusvinza, in patients in post-acute and chronic stages affected by the Chikungunya virus.
On December 2, 2025, a group of health experts began immunological and clinical studies on the Island, with the hypothesis that, with the intervention of Jusvinza, patients with chronic post-Chikungunya arthritis could show clinical improvements.
Fortunately, science has been indicating that in the groups enrolled in the study—in the provinces of Havana and Matanzas—a notable evolution has been observed.
More than one voice took part in Monday's reflections to highlight the rigor and appropriate safety profile of the study. It was spoken of in terms of a national achievement. And there is agreement that, following the treatment, patients' response to the product is evident early on.
Dr. Julio Esmir Baldomero Hernández, Director of Clinical Research at the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB, for its acronym in Spanish), stated that the study report could have firm data by early March; and that the research includes long-term evaluations, especially regarding safety and the persistence of the therapeutic effect.
The study, said the scientist, has been executed in compliance with good practices; and therefore, endorsed by the Center for State Control of Medicines, Equipment, and Medical Devices (Cedmed, for its acronym in Spanish), an entity that conducted an inspection just 24 days after the research began, from which it concluded compliance with good clinical practices.
Regarding an ailment that has shown its complexity, Dr. Miguel Hernán Estévez del Toro, Director of the Hermanos Ameijeiras Surgical Clinical Hospital and a Cuban rheumatology expert, highlighted that we are facing a disease where a percentage of patients will end the three-month evolution and progress toward chronic inflammatory arthropathy.
The expert said that, in all that is reported, practically the same inflammatory mediators are present, those that have some particularities in rheumatoid arthritis: When rheumatoid arthritis is not controlled, a chronic inflammatory process ensues that greatly limits—asserted the Doctor—the quality of life and functional status of patients.
That is, having a medication, a product capable of halting the inflammatory progression of the disease, will be very beneficial, he affirmed; and announced that, currently, under the guidelines of the Ministry of Public Health and its Innovation Committee, a national survey has been launched under the responsibility of the National Group and the Cuban Society of Rheumatology.
That survey includes, as explained by Dr. Miguel Hernán Estévez del Toro, all specialized personnel who have been treating the patients. This is to seek a positioning, a consensus, which—the doctor assessed—will be very good.
He affirmed that the current survey will yield "a highly consensual position document, and there will surely be the treatment guidelines," the combination, he said, of rehabilitation. And that rehabilitation is the battlefield in which Jusvinza is the product called to play a relevant role.
Jusvinza is a medication from Cuban biotechnology that controls hyperinflammation and regulates the immune response, approved to treat diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Covid-19. Repositioning this drug, which was not created to treat Chikungunya, has been, in the words of Dr. María del Carmen Domínguez, principal investigator of the study, a very difficult scientific exercise.
"The first gain in this preliminary cut is the safety profile; we once again confirm a good safety profile for the drug, and that also gives us something important, which is the ability to immunomodulate; because here we took from what we had studied in rheumatoid arthritis and Covid-19 to more repetitive administrations over time, that is an important molecular challenge. Likewise, we already see that, so early, the treatment has not yet finished; but there is a contribution to the clinical improvement of the patients," expressed the scientist.
From the Palace of the Revolution, at the meeting, which also included from the presidency the member of the Political Bureau and Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, expert voices confirmed, moreover, that the manifestation of the Chikungunya virus tends to decrease in the country. (Text and photo: Granma Digital)
