Despite U.S. Embargo, Cuban Biotech Booms
Aitsiselme, Amina
Beginning in the early 1960s, biotechnology and medical research became a top priority of the Cuban government, which invested over one billion dollars in biotech research and development...
...The entireeport is available at www.pugwashorgIreports/ees/ees8c.htm which can be fatal-was developed at Cuba's Carlos Finlay Institute in the 1980s and is now administered to all Cuban infants over three months...
...Given the size of the U.S...
...Currently in the United States there are some 3,000 cases of meningitis a year, 300 of them fatal, many of which could be prevented by immunizing children and teenagers, particularly in high risk areas...
...embargo, the Cuban mredBut one of the unintended "benefits" of the ical research community and public healthcare sysembargo for Cuba is that it has developed a tem have much to offer both their immediate remarkable self-reliance in terms of both healthcare neighbors and the wider international community...
...Although countries...
...The quality of these exports is therefore subject to the scrutiny of these countries' regulatory authorities as well as those of the World Health Organization (WHO...
...companies and thus coming directly under Despite the twin constraints of a developing counthe terms of the embargo...
...port within six months...
...government as well, including minimizing the hard currency that the Finlay Institute could receive: Part of the royalties must be paid in kind, through delivery of medicines and other materials to Cuba...
...Cuba could not purchase medicines from the United States and it was increasingly difficult to acquire them elsewhere...
...This has contributed to a 93% reduction in cases of meningococcal disease on the island...
...Other conditions were imposed by the U.S...
...With the fall of the U.S.S.R., Cuba's public health financing experienced a dramatic reduction, from over $250 million a year in the late 1980s to $65 million in 1993, only rising slowly to around $160 million in late 1990s...
...embargo...
...At present, Cuba exports its biotech products to over 20 countries, including the United Kingdom and Canada...
...A highly focused biotech research strategy has enabled the country to eradicate numerous diseases and to control epidemics in remarkably short periods of time...
...and biotechnology...
...Cuban scientists discovered that their own interferon, which had been perfected in under two months, was effective against the internal bleeding which results from dengue...
...U.S.owned pharmaceutical companies anywhere in the world are prohibited from trading with Cuba, a measure which specifically affects Cuba's biotechnology sector...
...It was noted that, despite its scarce import substitution tactics have saved millions of resources, Cuba has achieved success by focusing on dollars, Cuba nonetheless has had to more tightly specific goals and investing in a variety of projects, control distribution of medicines...
...Cuba's hepatitis B vaccine is on the WHO list of vaccines purchased by UN agencies...
...Beginning in the early 1960s, biotechnology and medical research became a top priority of the Cuban government, which invested over one billion dollars in biotech research and development (R&D) in the 1990s alone...
...Cuba-on the health of the Cuban people...
...The potential for use of the Cuban meningitis B vaccine outside Cuba is, to date, still being investigated...
...Cuba also has a number of biotech products in the pipeline and undergoing clinical trials, including vaccines for AIDS, cholera and cancer...
...Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, East European supplies, as Laboratory at Cuba's Center for Molecular immunology (CIM) well as the hard currency to purchase drugs in Western Europe, dried up...
...SmithKline Beecham, however, managed to galvanize enough scientific and medical support to demonstrate that the Finlay vaccine was the only option available on the market...
...embargo against Cuba...
...market, SmithKline was obviously interested in being able to market the vaccine in the United States, a suggestion that Cuba welcomed...
...For example, in the early 1980s Cuba experienced an epidemic of dengue fever, a serious mosquito-transmitted disease characterized by high fever that has no specific treatment...
...Treasury Department allowing them to finalize a deal with Finlay and bring the vaccine to the U.S...
...The situation was further exacerbated by the U.S...
...The problems caused by the decreased national health budget were aggravated by increased pressures on the health system, 38NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 38 NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICASREPORT ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY BY AMINA AIsiSELME including an aging population, increasing numbers of doctors and health practitioners, and increasing numbers of surgical procedures...
...A vaccine for meningitis B-an inflammation of the membranes covering the brain or spinal cord Amina Aitsiselmi is a final year medical student at Cambridge University...
...instead it is integrated into the state-funded health system, which provides free medical care for all Cubans and emphasizes preventive care and public health measures...
...such basic drugs both short-term (with low risk of failure but low as Ibuprofen, Vitamin E and the antibiotic Ery- probable reward) and long-term (with high risk but thromycin are not available in the country...
...More- match those of a developed country, and in a 2000 over, the 1990s witnessed a period of smaller Euro- World Health Organization report, Cuba's public pean pharmaceutical companies being bought out health system ranked 39th out of 191 countries...
...Many of Cuba's health indicators 52% of Cuba's public health expenditure...
...Prior to the 1990s, Cuba was able to minimize the impact of the U.S...
...try economy and the U.S...
...Cuba implemented a program Cuba boasts a ratio of 1.8 scientists per 1000 inhabiof import substitution and domestic production of tants, a level comparable to the European Union drugs, encompassing a total of 422 pharmaceuticals (though with a far smaller GDP...
...After two years of negotiations, SmithKline Beecham received a license from the U.S...
...Besides the increased Havana last year sponsored by the Pugwash Conferemphasis on biotech research, Cuba also designed ences on Science and World Affairs, international and developed a Natural and Traditional Medicine participants asked how the Cuban experience in Program which covers acupuncture, homeopathy, biotech could be replicated in other developing herbal medicines and water therapy...
...Cuba's biotech research effort has produced a variety of products ranging from vaccines and cancer therapy drugs to fetal monitoring equipment, and it now holds 400 patents in the biotech field...
...Cuba's national Center for Scientific Investigation was founded in 1965, leading the way for the opening of numerous other research facilities...
...embar- of pharmaceuticals...
...blockade by purchasing drugs in both Western and Eastern Europe...
...The Finlay Institute retains the vaccine patent and control over R&D, production and quality assessment capacities in Cuba...
...An example of the latter is the meninIn 1995, the American Association for World gitis B vaccine program...
...market, providing these vaccines were produced in SmithKline Beecham facilities...
...The result was both a resoHealth did a year-long study of the impact of the lution of a domestic health problem and the developembargo-which unlike any other embargo explic- ment of a product that can be marketed on a global itly bans sales of both food and medicine to level, generating a positive cash flow for the country...
...Nevertheless, Cuba's success in go requires that no freighters docking in Cuba may dealing with infectious diseases is such that the visit a U.S...
...But Cuba's biotech program does not aim simply at producing patentable drugs...
...by U.S...
...This article updates her report on the Pugwash Conference "Medical Research in Cuba: Strengthening International Cooperation" held in February, 2001 in Havana...
...Interferons, now widely used in cancer treatment, were among the first substances to be made using recombinant gene technology...
...In 1996, passage of the Helms-Burton Act had further tightened the embargo...
...The Export of both the meningitis B vaccine and the study concluded that the embargo had contributed hepatitis B vaccine provide income which is both to serious nutritional deficits and a degradation of reinvested in research and used to develop local vacCuba's water supply, due to the unavailability of cination programs...
...The antimeningitis B vaccine, unique in the world, caught the attention of the pharmaceutical company SmithKline Beecham (now Glaxo SmithKline), which subsequently reached an agreement with the Finlay Institute to market the vaccine globally...
...But export to the United States was initially blocked by the U.S...
...At a meeting in at a cost of $75 million...
...Today, there are 38 biotech centers, grouped together in a science park to the west of Havana, which integrate R&D, production and marketing...
...Now Cuba pays substantial shipping costs purifying chemicals, as well as widespread shortages for all imported materials because the U.S...
...high rewards...
...As a conse- country's leading causes of mortality are heart disquence, imported pharmaceuticals soak up around ease and cancer...
Vol. 35 • March 2002 • No. 5
