A letter addressed to the Finlay Institute from the World Health Organization in July 2006, asking for help in producing millions of doses of the anti-meningitis vaccine, was the motive for the inauguration at that renowned center of Cuban biotechnology, of a plant with a production capacity of up to 100 million doses annually of active components for that purpose.

The operation of the modern plant holds greater significance, given that the WHO request outlined "an emergency," because the transnational pharmaceutical companies that supply the vaccine against meningitis serogroup A for using in the so-called "meningitis belt" in Africa "were no longer going to produce it, because sales were not profitable for them."

Meningococcal meningitis is a serious infectious disease produced by a bacterium called meningococcus.

The serogroup A strain is the one that principally affects the so-called "meningitis belt" that comprises 21 African countries, where about 400 million people are at risk, with an annual incidence of up to 1,000 affected per every 100,000 inhabitants during epidemic years. Most of the victims are under 15 years old.

The problem is aggravated by the lack of healthcare infrastructure, and international agencies believe that up to 50% of meningitis patients die in that impoverished continent; a similar percentage of those who survive suffer from severe after-effects, such as metal retardation, deafness and blindness.

The Finlay Institute is a vaccine and serum research and production center in the western Havana scientific complex, where a highly effective vaccine against meningitis B was discovered and developed. That vaccine has saved many lives in Cuba and in the region.

The new plant features cutting-edge installations and equipment, with a standard of quality that meets rigorous international demand. It will be operating 24 hours around the clock with 81 specialists, and is capable of responding to the production volume needed by the WHO.

Key to this is the level of development attained by Cuba’s biotechnology sector over more than 20 years, and an Engineering and Projects Center that guaranteed the plant’s design and construction.

This production enables the Finlay to complement its potential, in association with the Bio-Manguinhos Immunobiological Technology Institute, attached to the Osvaldo Cruz Foundation in Rio de Janeiro which, in a demonstration of true South-South cooperation, will guarantee the immediate delivery of vaccine to Africa.

Officially created on January 15, 1991 via a resolution signed by Fidel, the Finlay Institute, the initiator of large-scale biotechnological production in Cuba, has produced millions of doses for fighting meningitis B in many countries all over the world, and its contribution and development — hence its international prestige — have increased over the years in response to the growing demand for vaccines to prevent infectious diseases.

With highly-trained scientific personnel, the Institute produces vaccines against meningitis B and C; leptospirosis; typhoid fever; tetanus; diphtheria and whooping cough, the latter three being components of combined vaccines produced by other biotechnological centers in the western Havana scientific complex. The Institute also provides these centers with other elements for anti-cancer vaccines now undergoing clinical trials, and carries out joint research with them on, for example, an anti-cholera vaccine, in an endless scientific search for new ways to benefit the health of many.

It is no coincidence, therefore, that the ideas of José Martí are so dear to Cuban scientist Concepción Campa Huerga, director of the Finlay Institute. Paraphrasing him, she says, "If we have served for anything up until now, we that is forgotten already; what we want to do is to serve more."