Validity of Cuban interferons for preventive use and confrontation with new diseases is analyzed in weekly meeting of the country's leadership with scientists

Havana, Sept 27 (RHC) The weekly meeting of the country's leadership, headed by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, with experts and scientists on health issues, addressed this Tuesday, the result of the use of Cuban interferons in the National Action Protocol for COVID-19, as reported by the Presidency website.

Díaz-Canel highlighted the capacity of Cuban science and the health system to turn to products that have already achieved and demonstrated their effectiveness in the preventive use and the initial confrontation of new diseases. He affirmed that the use of Cuban interferons in the National Action Protocol for COVID-19 validates the solidity of Cuban medications.

Cuba was one of the pioneer countries in the production of interferons, obtaining leukocyte interferon in 1981, one of the first in the world. It has had several formulations over the years and has been widely used in the confrontation and control of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Doctor of Science Hugo Nodarse Cuní, head of the Clinical Research Department of the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, recalled that the first use of interferons in the treatment of those infected with the new coronavirus was in China, at the beginning of the epidemic, and it was precisely a drug created by Cuban scientists and produced by the Chinese-Cuban joint company ChangHEBER.

The expert pointed out that as a result of the fact that COVID-19 was directed and controlled in Cuba based on science and innovation, interferon was the medication that was most widely used in the pre-vaccination stage. He stressed that this is a product of Cuban biotechnology that was used 40 years ago in the Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever epidemic.

He recalled that Interferon type I had already been used previously in the treatment of coronaviruses, but in the case of the SARS CoV-2 virus it turned out to be more sensitive.

The specialist reviewed the results of clinical studies to evaluate the effect and safety of the Cuban interferons HeberFERÓN versus Heberón Alfa R, as well as the use of the latter in patients with COVID-19.

He reported that between March 2020 and April 2021, the period prior to the start of mass immunization with anti-COVID-19 vaccines, also entirely Cuban, more than 88,000 individuals participated in a clinical trial with the application of interferons.

Among the results of the studies, Nodarse noted that treatment with Interferon Alfa-2b in COVID-19 patients contributed to recovery, regardless of the presence of clinical respiratory symptoms. It was associated with a lower intensive care unit requirement, and significantly reduced the risk of death.

In the meeting, the scientist addressed the pharmaceutical formulation in detail of recombinant human Interferon Alfa 2b in solution for nasal administration.

In the studies carried out, the now iconic Nasalferón, another fruit of Cuban science during the confrontation with the COVID-19 pandemic, proved to have potency for a nasopharyngeal antiviral effect, as well as sustained and prolonged effects. Its safety and prophylactic effect allowed it to obtain Emergency Use Authorization from the Cuban regulatory authority. (Source: presidency’s website)