In a recent meeting with the Cuban president, health experts presented progress on the Finlay Vaccine Institute's pneumococcal conjugate vaccine development program. This effort, led for over 20 years, aims to protect children and older adults from severe diseases caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. The heptavalent Quimi-Vio® vaccine is already registered and shows positive results in reducing mortality.
The Finlay Vaccine Institute (IFV), founded in 1991 and part of the BioCubaFarma Business Group, supplies eight vaccines to Cuba's National Health System. Its program for developing multivalent conjugate vaccines against pneumococcus, started over two decades ago, has resulted in Quimi-Vio®, a heptavalent vaccine registered in 2024 by the Center for State Control of Medicines, Equipment, and Medical Devices (Cecmed). This vaccine protects against seven common worldwide serotypes prevalent in Cuba.
Pneumococcal disease, caused by the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae, leads to acute meningitis, complicated pneumonia, and other severe infections, with mortality rates of 8% in childhood meningitis and 5% in pneumonia, according to Dr. Darielys Santana Medero, the project head. The World Health Organization estimates 1.6 million annual deaths from these diseases, including 800,000 children under five, mostly in developing countries. In Cuba, pneumonia and influenza rank as the fourth leading cause of death, with a significant portion due to this pathogen.
In Cienfuegos province, from 2017 to 2019, 93% of children aged one to five were vaccinated, dropping mortality rates from meningitis and invasive diseases from 3.1 and 9.1 per 10,000 to zero, where they remain. Incidence in intensive care for severe pneumonia fell from 123.67 in unvaccinated to 3.14 in vaccinated individuals.
Currently, the IFV focuses on registering the Quimi-Vio 11 candidate in 2026, which adds four more serotypes and targets infants and older adults. Phase II-III clinical trials are underway in Havana for adults and in Cienfuegos, Santiago de Cuba, and soon Havana for children. Another candidate, Quimi-Vio 16, is under evaluation in laboratory animals. The name Quimi-Vio honors scientist Violeta Fernández Santana, who died in 2011.
Yury Valdés Balbín, the IFV's general director, noted that trials occur in primary health care, a challenge that Cuba's health system effectively addresses.
