Can Biotechnology Save the Cuban Revolution?

...Even among Western industrialized countries, only Japan has made biotechnology part of its national development strategy...

...Lack of credibility in the world market due partially to ignorance and partially to misinformation campaigns has led the Cuban government to establish rigorous Cuban biotechnology has be guarar for al country ate un (costscious enterprises have an edge over their U.S...

...The biotechnology and medical-pharmaceutical sector is an island of scientific and technological complexity in a sea of increasingly primitive work processes...

...Non-specific indicate sales to some Eur( and Latin American countr recombinant hepatitis-b va interferons, reagents, and S iorks, aterital to ises...

...trade em precludes Cuba's entrance in United States, its most lucr and natural market...

...The Cuban government's ability to formulate and execute a coherent scientific-development strategy is one of the few benefits of a comdical equipment - a major export - in f mand economy and central planning...

...Without importsubstitution and export-oriented biotechnology, the revolution might not have survived as long as it has...

...Foreseeing this loss, Castro chose three economic sectors for priority investment to keep the Cuban economy and the revolution afloat: biotechnology and medical exports, tourism, and food production...

...They can move more quickly to clinical field trials and applications because of a less complex regulatory environment and a national health-care system that provides the patient population necessary for testing...

...When Fidel Castro proclaimed "a special period in time of peace" Julie Feinsilver teaches politics at Oberlin College...

...Most of the world market is, however, already controlled by transnational pharmaceutical companies that have patents, well-organized marNACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 8 keting and distribution netw slick sales and packaging m als, and considerable capil finance their enterpr Moreover, the U.S...

...counterparts in another way as well...

...If the central government determines that it needs biochemists rather than philosophers, then it simply allocates most of the places in higher education to the former, severely restricts entry into the latter, and alters secondary-school curriculums to feed into the biochemistry track...

...gy supplies has The local currency has become useless as more and more goods and services are only available with dollars, which ordinary Cubans are forbidden to have...

...The same Fidel Castro who railed against foreign investment over three decades ago is inviting foreign investors into Cuba, allowing them to repatriate their profits and to disregard Cuban labor legislation in establishments in which they have a financial stake...

...economic embargo begun in 1961, Cuba's national income dropped approximately 45% between 1989 and 1992...

...Contradictions between the socialist ideals of the revolution and the harsh realities of economic necessity may mean that market-oriented production practices and increasing inequality will destroy the revolution in order to save it...

...trade embargo...

...They make this rather arduous trip in a tropical climate that contrasts sharply with the air-conditioned laboratories in which they work...

...Before answering these questions, one must ask why and how a small developing nation like Cuba could even contemplate the use of biotechnology as part of a national economic survival strategy...

...The black market is not new, but its increased importance and vast expansion are...

...C uban biotechnology and genetic engineering evolved k from clinical medicine, which was a key area of development from the outset of the revolution...

...bargo to the native (Cuba's micro-analytic enzymelinked immunosorbent assay...

...field norms...

...By 1980, when the government decided to invest heavily in biotechnology, Cuba already had a national network of health-care delivery facilities, medical schools, research institutes, and pharmaceuVol XXVI, No 5 May 1993 7 ANALYSIS / CUBA tical and medical products factories, all of which could be put at the service of this incipient scientific sector...

...Today, 34 years later, those previously liberated areas are no longer open to the very people who fought the revolution and in whose name it triumphed...

...Like the the pa e vol- Japanese industrial -development sented trade strategy, the Cuban biotechnology all), ai field...

...Scientific tracking in education has gone on since the establishment in 1981 of elite secondary schools for the sciences where entrance for both students and faculty is highly competitive, and where performance standards are rigorous...

...With living standards sharply reduced to mere subsistence at best, Cubans of all walks of life are finding themselves forced to acquire many of the necessities of life through the black market rather than the egalitarian rationing system...

...Moreover, few biotechnology companies in the United States are successful, and all are seeking alliances with transnational pharmaceutical companies in order to gain access to capital and marketing networks...

...Revolutionary values of equality and human dignity, and revolutionary rights of employment, education, and health care are under siege as Cuba squirms under the stranglehold of the U.S...

...Ironically, a young couple, both biotechnology scientists employed there, must travel 10 miles to work by bicycle from their home in Regla on the far eastern side of the city...

...necessary to make real break- rudim accu- throughs in the field...

...fter the victory of the revolution, Castro "liberated" exclusive properties for the enjoyment of the masses...

...However, can biotechnology-along with tourism and the food program-save the revolution...

...bikes to work in Havana...

...Because of the loss of this trade and aid, and the tightening of the U.S...

...Because it produces a varii good-quality products at a cost than the competition, should be able to carve out a for itself in the world ma Unfortunately, there are no rate or specific figures on th ume of trade or on Cuba's partners in the biotechnology Trade with Russia and some other former Soviet republic resumed, but biotechnology ucts are not yet a part of that Trade with China, howeve included biotechnology pro since 1991, but again no spe are available...

...Can biotechnology help save the revolution...

...The y is only beginning to operder the norms of capitalist efficient and quality-con;) production...

...They can move more quickly to clinical field trials and applications because of a less lavana...

...Although many of the researchers at CIGB live in good housing across the street from work and have better working conditions and better access to food than others, the overall demoralization of the population and the hardships of some of their colleagues, families and friends must affect their productivity...

...The lack of energy orms of gas-powered transportation...

...She is the author of Healing the Masses: Cuban Health Politics at Home and Abroad (University of California Press, 1993...

...ing w ause a While Cuba has built a major ating ocess biotechnology industrial complex produce and created marketable products vince ety of (unlike many U.S...

...Overstaffing of work centers commonly led to inefficient work habits and low productivity...

...During and after university training, the best students are recruited for internships at research institutes, some of which offer doctoral training...

...Social stratification by whether or not one produces exportable goods, particularly in the high-priority biotechnology and medical-pharmaceutical area, is becoming increasingly awkward in an egalitarian society...

...The government has recent- may c ed...

...The real breakthroughs in biotechnology are yet to come, but without its biotechnology complex, Cuba would be left on the wrong side of the rapidly widening technological gap between the rich and poor countries...

...The quality of per, design, information pre, color graphics (if used at nd translation were all quite tive...

...much :s has Nevertheless, now that Cuba has attent prod- the scientific infrastructure, human pract trade...

...The lack of energy supplies in Cuba has simply halted most forms of gas-powered vehicular transportation...

...Previously, goods were produced whether they were needed or not, whether of marketable quality or not, and in the case of clothing, in styles, sizes, and colors that were often not desired by the consumer...

...Since their development of interferons in 1982, Cuban sci- An exhibitof m entists have gone on to work on interleukins, colony-stimulating factors, monoclonal antibodies, and vaccines, most of which are at the forefront of pharmaceutical biotechnology research...

...Cuba initially focused on interferon because it was thought at the time to be a potential wonder drug, particularly as a cancer treatment and an anti-viral medicine, and because it served as a model for the development of advanced molecular-biology skills, such as DNA splicing, gene and protein sequencing, synthesizing, cloning, and vector construction...

...Others include the ability to channel human, fiscal and physical resources into priority sectors...

...biotechnology companies, by contrast, face a 10- to 12-year lag between initial product development and government approval, and a cost of between $50 million and $150 million to bring the product to market...

...biotechnology the pr lower companies), experts contend that choice Cuba Cuban scientists do little of the ogy a niche basic scientific research which is produ market...

...resources, and experience in prod- Natio r, has uct development, it is beginning to course ducts promote scientific innovation not, h cifics where possible...

...espite such factors favoring Cuba's success in the biotechnology field, many obstacles still loom large...

...While Castro was prescient in pursuing biotechnology, the current economic and political circumstances make success difficult, but not impossible...

...Apartheid tourism -the complete segregation of facilities for tourists from those for the general population-has made Cubans into secondclass citizens in their own country...

...These products fall into four broad categories: human medical-pharmaceutical products (including diagnostics and therapeutics), industrial enzymes and bioremediation (such as microorganisms to clean up oil spills), agricultural applications (such as plant and animal genetie ics), and research-laboratory equipment and supplies...

...The Cuban economy was integrated into CMEA's five-year production allocation plans...

...They still do owever, compete with the ting techniques of Cuba's etitors, the transnational aceutical corporations...

...The real test is if Cuba can find sufficient markets for its products which, according to one expert, could be worth $1 billion a year...

...This government's ability to centrally plan humanresources development has led to growth in the scientific-research sector from 12 scientists in 1965 to almost 20,000 in 1989...

...Recent catalogs are improved, the result of new ion to capitalist marketing ices and recent United n-sponsored marketing es and advice...

...Cuban researchers have developed over 160 medical-pharmaceutical biotechnology products and a number of agricultural and industrial biotechnology products, some of which are innovative and others merely derivative...

...Cuba is also ing new ways of making pro that are already patented, beca significant change in the pr allows it to seek a new patent...

...Cuba is trying to get around some of these difficulties by concentrating on the Third World market where intellectual property rights in the pharmaceutical are frequently not recogniz has agreed to barter trade, cot trade, or clearing accounts than insist upon hard curry payable in cash...

...Final ccine, Another related problem is Cubai UMA Cuba's inefficient economy, which demise en geared to production for iteed and protected markets most three decades...

...That they pass through the main arteries of the capital without encountering many vehicles is a stark reminder of Cuba's recent and rapid deindustrialization...

...H avana's Center for Genetic Engineering and Biology (CIGB) is perhaps the most technologically sophisticated scientific research facility in the Third World...

...Previously, 84% of Cuban trade was with the socialist-bloc Community for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA...

...In all categories, import substitution has been the primary goal, but export has become increasingly critical as the government tries desperately to replace lost aid and trade...

...It ly made large investments in quali- econoi unter- ty control, has demanded adher- mainta rather ence to U.S...

...counterparts...

...This, in turn, has led much of the population to eschew revolutionary practices and ideals...

...Hotels, restaurants, beach resorts, and housing in the best neighborhoods became accessible to all...

...Castro is faced with a seemingly hopeless dilemma...

...Developing nations with socialist ideologies have turned to science as an instrument of societal transformation in part because of socialism's "scientific" analysis of the movement of history, but also because science provides rational means to achieve development goals which then legitimate the regime...

...in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin Wall and just prior to the disintegration of the Soviet Union, he put the Cuban economy on a war footing without having the country actually go to war...

...Cuban biotechnology enterprises have an edge over their U.S...

...A student who would like to become a philosopher must decide instead on another career for which there is societal demand...

...Educational possibilities, for example, are primarily a function of national needs...

...Beyond that, the stress of being singled out as a group that is charged with finding scientific solutions to extremely complex economic problems must weigh heavily on this rather young scientific workforce...

...Llly, the near collapse of the n economy because of the e of trade with the country's Vol XXVI, No 5 May 1993 9 9 Vol XXVI, No 5 May 1993ANALYSIS / CUBA former allies makes daily exis- tence difficult...

...Castro has repeatedly stated since 1961 that Cuba's future must be one of scientists, and that Cuba must not only take advantage of the scientifictechnical revolution, but also be a part of it...

...complex regulatory environment and a national health-care system that provides the patient population necessary for testing and a ready outlet for products...

...and international stan- a sea c ency dards, and has selected a very qual- Cub seek- ified group of people to work in anteed )ducts this area...

...It is questionable whether Cuba can continue to maintain a privileged scientific sector in a People riding country that in halted most f many areas is rapidly returning to the preindustrial era...

...And when it comes to buying equipment, the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992 (Torricelli bill) specifically prohibits the export to Cuba of anything that might aid the development of biotechnology (an indication, perhaps, that the United States takes the Cuban biotechnology strategy seriously...

...Agricultural biotechnology, primarily cross-breeding, has been a focus of study since the 1960s, but it really took off in the late 1980s with advances in genetic engineering and the establishment of biofactories to clone in vitro plantain and other seedlings from tissue cultures...

...Long-term central planning of this sort is simply not an option for almost all of the world's economies today...

...strategy is based on copying exist- primi of the ing technology and products...

...Cuba, however, marke data may not have the luxury, nor per- comp opean haps the ability, to do basic pharm ies of research...

...For example, employees in the service sector frequently chatted among themselves rather than serve customers in a timely fashion...

...This young couple's daily routine represents the contradictions prevalent in Cuba today...

...For the many Cubans who have seen their factories close because of the lack of raw materials and/or energy supplies, the sacrifices they have made to save what is left of the Cuban social welfare state seem to outweigh the remaining benefits...

...His investment strategy is designed to lay a solid foundation for future development, but it curtails current consumption, which is already sharply reduced...

...Tensions are bound to arise between this sector and the nonprivileged sectors of society, particularly those who have become marginally employed or unemployed, or who must now work in agriculture...

...The biotechnology sector differ from the rest of the my, but it seems difficult to in an island of efficiency in ,f inefficiency...

...a's past production for guarmarkets meant that marketis merely a matter of negotithe price and quantity of a ct, rather than trying to cona potential customer to buy oduct in a market of infinite s. Cuba's initial biotechnolnd medical-pharmaceutical cts catalogs were, therefore, entary at best...

...The investment of scarce resources to implement these new policies has diverted funds from consumer goods...

...In that context, it is not surprising that Castro has repeatedly stated since 1961 that Cuba's future must be one of scientists, and that Cuba must not only take advantage of the scientific-technical revolution, but also be a part of it...

...Clearly, biotechnology alone cannot replace Cuba's traditional exports of sugar, nickel, tobacco, citrus and seafood, but does it form part of a coherent strategy to replace this lost trade...