Needless to say, U.S. corporate media always avoid any reference to their tremendous achievements whatsoever, even though the rest of the world has been benefiting from them already.
Cuba's goal has specifcally been, since the revolution, and Cuba's intention to maintain the highest possible standard of medical treatmment possible for Cubans, to produce the best medicine possible at rational cost. Cuba has made some of their products available to other countries already, as mentioned in the O.P.
A few random mentions from a quick search:
Last Updated: Friday, 21 November, 2003, 08:29 GMT
Cuba sells its medical expertise
By Tom Fawthrop
reporting from Havana, Cuba
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In the 1980s millions of dollars were invested by the Cuban government in developing modern vaccines laboratories and a massive centre for biotechnology.
Since the end of Soviet aid in 1989, and the acute economic crisis of the 1990s, Cuba has seen the excellence of its medico-scientific institutions as a strategic resource for developing new medical products for export.
The country's first breakthrough in medical research was its discovery and patenting of meningitis-B vaccine in late 1980s.
It has been successfully exported to cope with epidemics in South American countries including Brazil and Argentina.
The vaccine has now been licensed to GlaxoSmithKline who will now market it in Europe and it is hoped eventually in the USA.
More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3284995.stm
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Medical Research in Cuba: Strengthening International Cooperation
15-17 February 2001, Havana, Cuba
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Medical and Biotechnology Research in Cuba
The workshop began with an overview of Cuban achievements and the current state of Cuban biomedical research. Beginning in the early 1960s, biotechnology and medical research became a top priority of the Cuban government, with over one billion dollars invested in biotech R&D in the 1990s alone. Today, Cuba boasts a ratio of 1.8 scientists per 1000 inhabitants, a level comparable to the European Union (though with a far smaller GDP). Cuba also holds 400 patents in the biotech field.
In 1965, Cuba's national Center for Scientific Investigation was founded, leading the way for the opening of numerous other research facilities. Today, there are 38 biotech centers, grouped together in a science park to the west of Havana, which integrate research, development, production and marketing. A highly focused research strategy has enabled the country to eradicate numerous diseases and to control epidemics in remarkably short periods of time. For example, soon after the outbreak of a dengue epidemic in the early 1980s, Cuban scientists discovered that their own interferon, which had been perfected in under two months, was effective against internal bleeding resulting from dengue fever. Vector control measures are now in place and Cuba is currently free of the disease.
As a result of its overall strategy, Cuba's research effort has produced a variety of products ranging from vaccines and cancer therapy drugs to fetal monitoring equipment. Some of the many examples include:
- Monoclonal antibody and interferon, for the treatment of cancer and viral diseases;
- Anti-meningitis B and hepatitis B vaccine, both have been certified by the WHO;
- Recombinant streptokinase for the treatment of heart attacks;
- biomodulin-T;
- blood derivatives (albumin, anti meningococcal immonuglobulin);
- vaccines (rabies, small pox, tetanus, diphtheria; salmonella tiphi).
More:
http://www.pugwash.org/reports/ees/ees8e.htm
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The Cuban Biotechnology Industry: Innovation and universal health care
By Andrés Cárdenas
Institute for Institutional and Innovations Economics
University of Bremen, Germany
November 2009
Abstract
The analysis of Cuban biotechnology reveals how important it is to rely on country-specific institutional innovations in order to evolve coherently from lesser to more technology-intensive industries. In this short contribution, it is argued that the development of the Cuban biotechnology industry must be understood in the context of the Cuban socio-political context. Indeed, the Cuban biotechnology has been conceived as an element of the state-funded health system, and is part of a broad strategy designed primarily to preserve a healthy population. The government investments and strategic involvement have been essential to create a research and production infrastructure and a qualified workforce which led to the creation of the West Havana Biocluster. Another feature of this industry has been the widespread and long-term state-fuelled integration of the biotechnology in a multi-institutional system, aimed at supporting interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge sharing. It will be argued that these characteristics are critical to the high innovation rate achieved by this industry.
Introduction
Even when the pervasive lack of data makes it difficult to establish an accurate picture about the innovative outcomes of Cuba’s biotechnology industry, the available evidence of its achievements in this field seems to be unequivocal. According to a World Bank report1, “[…] at present, nearly 80 percent of finished pharmaceutical products used in Cuba are locally made”. A few lines earlier, the report also states that“[…] the growth of the local pharmaceutical industry, which by the mid-1990s was bringing Cuba some 100 million dollars a year in export earnings, has not only covered domestic demand for medicines, but has also led to the development of products that compete on the international market. Cuba is the only country in the world, for example, that has come up with an effective vaccine against meningitis B”. This vaccine (VAMENGOC- BC®)2 is now exported primarily to Latin America, including Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, and Uruguay, but also to countries in Asia and Europe.
An article from the MEDICC Review3 states that “[…] a recent Ernst & Young report puts exports of biotech products at USD$300 million in 2005”. The recombinant hepatitis B vaccine (see figure 11) has received pre-qualification from the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2001 for international use and is now commercialised in more than 30 countries worldwide4. Cuba recently developed the world's first synthetic vaccine ( Quimi-Hib) against Haemophilus influenzae type b (or Hib), a bacteria that causes nearly 50% of all infections, some of which lead to deafness and mental retardation, in under five-year-olds worldwide5. According to a Chemical and Engineering News report6, this is the first commercial vaccine made from a synthetic carbohydrate, which is said to be cheaper than those based on natural carbohydrates; and to envision a new generation of carbohydrate-based vaccines. Cuba’s Centre for Neurosciences electroencephalography and electromyography equipments are being exported to over 20 countries in North America, Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America under the Neuronic trademark7. This Saragossa-based (Spain) Cuban company has earned the European Union’s certification for sale in Europe and won in April of 2009 the National Exporter Award for the volume of goods commercialized8.
The Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), located in the Western Havana Biocluster in Cuba, is one of the most important companies in Cuba and “has a long and distinguished record of producing innovative biotech products for the country’s healthcare system”9 (See Figures). Joint venture projects and licences include countries such as Canada, Great Britain, Algeria, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Malaysia, Mexico, South Africa, Tunisia, and Venezuela. Firms such as GlaxoSmithKline (England), CancerVax (US), Biotech Pharmaceutical Ltd (China), Oncoscience AG (Germany), YMBiosciences (Canada) are among the foreign collaborators. According to a study from Nature Biotechnology10 by 2004, Cuba had registered some 100 patents and applied for another 500 patents throughout the world. The US Treasury Department has approved several clinical trials of Cuban products within US territory, despite the US trade embargo against Cuba (see below).
More:
http://www.innovation-equity.eu/file_upload/andres-cardenas_paper.pdf
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One does not frequently hear of Cuba when discussing today's integrating global economy. Cuba appears isolated, politically and economically, mainly due to trade restrictions placed on it by the US in the 1960's. No wonder, says the author of this Straits Times article, the world is surprised to learn of Cuba's flourishing biotech industry which has contributed much to the field of biotechnology and medicine. Since its establishment in the mid-1980's, the Cuban biotech sector has developed a meningitis B vaccine, and today exports the world's most effective hepatitis B vaccine to more than 30 countries. Recently, it developed the first synthetic vaccine for the prevention of pneumonia and meningitis, which is much cheaper than what is offered by Western pharmaceutical companies. Poised to provide anti-cancer therapies to the European market by 2008, Cuba is also eagerly looking to enter the western market, and many observers are cheering it on. – YaleGlobal
Cuba Ailing? Not Its Biomedical Industry
Tom Fawthrop
The Straits Times, 26 January 2004
MENTION faraway Cuba and most people think of a Caribbean island best known for Havana cigars, rum and the revolutionary exploits of Che Guevara. They probably don't associate it with cutting edge medical research.
Yet Cuban biotechnology is now, among other things, leading the way in the development of a new generation of anti-cancer therapies expected to be available to the European market by 2008.
Given Cuba's cash-strapped economy, its scientific achievements are all the more surprising. It has long been battered by the United States trade embargo, imposed in the 1960s and still in force today. After the Cold War ended, Washington tightened the economic screws further with resulting shortages of consumer goods.
More:
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/cuba-ailing-not-its-biomedical-industry
ETC., ETC., ETC........
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