Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
Camagüey, Nov 17.- Dr. C. Ernesto Chico, director of the Joint Biotechnology Company between the United States and Cuba called Innovative Immunotherapy Alliance, gave this Thursday at the University of Camagüey (UC) Ignacio Agramonte Loynaz the Master Lecture “Production of “Soberana vaccine: lessons from the Cuban response to COVID-19.”
During his presentation, the Doctor explained the economics of the production of vaccines against COVID-19 and the need to contribute to eradicating a disease that cost many human lives and 500 billion dollars a month to the world. In addition, he analyzed articles published in the foreign press defending the idea that Cuba should vaccinate the planet if the pandemic returned.
The prominent researcher from the Center for Molecular Immunology elaborated on the main challenges they had to obtain Soberana, among them, achieving a rapid product, Industrial facilities, the supply of production inputs, Alternative Regulatory Development and working against the clock for speed. of spread and mortality of the Coronavirus.
“The motivation of all the people who collaborated in Cuba and abroad for the effective development of this vaccine and the urgency to produce it due to the increase in cases and deaths meant that we obtained a more complete technology in six months and also directed it to the children, being the first country to begin childhood vaccination,” he explained.
Dr. C. Ernesto Chico also highlighted the support provided by university students from different scenarios when confronting Covid-19, especially those with an engineering profile who entered directly into the candidate's production and completed their studies at the facilities. industrial and research centers.
With great success in the design of biotechnological plants in countries such as China, India, Brazil and Thailand, this specialist, winner of the Cuban Academy of Sciences, is also the protagonist of the Cuban therapeutic vaccine against lung cancer, Cimavax-EGF, which has begun to be successfully tested on a small scale by the American scientific community in patients from that nation.
The conference is part of a Postgraduate Course that the researcher has been teaching since Wednesday at the University of Camagüey, which has also included presentations on Mathematical Modeling of processes, cell culture and the interaction of Cancer-Immune System-Therapies. (Text and photo: Alexei Nápoles González/ University of Camagüey Ignacio Agramonte Loynaz)
