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Havana, May 28 (RHC)-- Despite the limitations deriving from the  COVID-19 pandemic, Cuba is currently carrying out 105 clinical trials, of which 43 are aimed at cancer treatment.

According to the National Coordinating Center for Clinical Trials (CENCEC), subordinated to the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP), that agency approved, from March 2020 to April 2021, 28 studies to prevent and treat the disease. Of these, four were completed last year, and 24 are in some of their development phases, a process that can take from ten to 12 years.

Forty-six studies -not all clinical trials- have been registered to treat the coronavirus: 14 by the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology and ten by the Finlay Vaccine Institute, and CENCEC is involved in some 22.

These trials, defined as "a research methodology carried out with the participation of human beings as volunteers, to evaluate the effect of an intervention of drugs, equipment or medical devices on a specific health problem", go through several phases, according to Yamilé Cachimaille Benavides, head of Cencec's Clinical Trials Department.

According to the country's health authorities, the clinical trials of Cuban vaccine candidates against COVID-19 are progressing with favorable results.

In Cuba, more than one million people have been vaccinated with at least the first dose of vaccine candidates created and produced in the country to face COVID-19.