Venezuela to begin clinical trials of Cuba’s vaccine candidate

Venezuelan health minister says the nation hopes to produce enough doses of Cuban vaccine to inoculate four million people.

Venezuela will begin clinical trials of the Cuban coronavirus vaccine candidate Abdala this month, Health Minister Carlos Alvarado said on Monday, as the country plans to produce enough doses locally to vaccinate four million people. Cuba in March approved late-stage trials of Abdala, named after a poem by the 19th-century Cuban independence hero Jose Marti. The trials are to be completed in July and the first results published in August, according to Cuban state media.