Cuban biotechnology – a news chronology

(From stories compiled by FOCAL, the Canadian Foundation for the Americas)

2006

January 18: A Cuban Health Care Ministry report announces that the biotechnology industry, as well as vaccine and health care service exports to other countries, will soon become the main revenue sources for this country. The report maintains that medical exports are about to exceed the US$1,800 million generated annually by the tourist industry, until now the principal source of foreign currency for this nation. (BBC, 18/1/06)

February 13: The success of biotechnology research in Cuba is the main pull-factor for a Swiss delegation arriving in the country for a one-week official visit.   Leading the delegation is the State Secretary for Education and Research, Charles Kleiber, the highest-ranking Swiss government representative to travel to Cuba on official business. "There are very few relations in the field of science and we think that it's the moment now to strengthen our cooperation," Kleiber, who was previously in Cuba in 2002, told the press. He said the aim of the trip was to see where Cuban science was at the moment, mainly in the field of biotechnology. (SwissInfo, 13/2/06)

February 18: Cuba´s Public Health Ministry announced that a new anti-poliomyelitis vaccination campaign will start on February 24 to immunize more than half a million children. Nearly 400,000 under three-year-old toddlers will receive the oral dose in the first stage and a second portion from April 3-13 while the vaccine will be reactivated for over 140,000 nine-year-old children. Miguel Galindo, chief of the National Vaccine Program, explained the antigen has been administrated to more than eight million Cubans in these decades. (Prensa Latina, 18/2/06)

February 21: An award in the field of health, given by the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California, was presented to the HIV Vaccine Team at a ceremony held at the University of Havana. The awards are presented annually to educators, scientists and social entrepreneurs who use technology to benefit humankind. The team developed the first vaccine containing an antigen produced by chemical synthesis, states the award. The members of the Hib Vaccine Team are Dr. Vicente Verez-Bencomo and Dr. Violeta Fernandez Santana from the University of Havana, Professor Rene Roy from the University of Quebec in Montreal, Dr. Eugenio Hardy from the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, and Dr. Maria Eugenia Toledo from the Institute for Tropical Medicine Pedro Kouri. Roy, a Canadian professor from the Faculty of Chemistry and Biochemistry, was the only member of the research team who could assist the gala at the museum headquarters in San Jose last November 9. The group of Cuban scientists that developed the vaccine was denied visas by the US government. The Canadian scientist handed the trophy to Dr. Vicente Verez, the project's leading researcher and director of the Center of Synthetic Antigens at the University of Havana. (Granma, AFP, 22/2/06)

February 24: A Swiss delegation has recently visited Cuba in order to learn from the country's biotechnology sector, which is one of the most advanced in the developing world. Switzerland has scant relations with Cuba in the field of science and is looking to strengthen co-operation in this area. Cuba currently exports biotechnology products to 50 countries in the world, mainly in Latin America and Asia, and overseas sales total around US$300mn per year. Cuba is one of the top three drug exporting nations in Latin America. (Emerging Markets Daily News, 24/2/06)

March 16: Cuban Health Minister Jose Ramon Balaguer officially opened an advanced provincial genetics center in the eastern city of Guantanamo. Alongside Luis Torres, the First Secretary of the Communist Party in the province, Balaguer spoke to the center's personnel, which are made up of 37 workers – 90 percent of whom are women, of which five are specialists. The group will assist families, couples, women and children with genetic risks and offer pregnant women various basic blood tests. (AIN, 17/3/06)

March 29: Cuba is interested in setting up joint venture pharmaceutical industries in Bangladesh to share its advancement in the treatment of cancer and other diseases. This was stated by Delhi based Cuban Ambassador to Bangladesh Juan Carretero Ibanez, when he called on Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia at her office. The Prime Minister welcomed Cuba's eagerness and called for importing quality medicines that are being manufactured in Bangladesh. (Bangladesh Observer, 31/3/06)

April 7: Coinciding with the World Health Day, Cuba immunized 524,000 children in the second stage of the anti-poliomyelitis vaccination campaign. Nearly 384,000 under three-year-old toddlers, already vaccinated in February, received a second portion while the medication was reactivated for over 140,000 nine-year-old children. (Prensa Latina, 7/4/06)

April 8: Cuba will supply several types of vaccines to Vietnam for the immunization of its population, following a contract the two countries signed in the framework of the 16th Vietnam International Fair -EXPO 2006. The agreement was signed by the vice chairwoman of the Hanoi Pharmaceutical Company (Hapharco), Nguyen Thi Minh Tu, and the Asian sales manager of Cuba's Heber Biotec S.A., Mai Thao. It includes the supply of anti-hepatitis B vaccines, and the new synthetic vaccine against the Haemophilus influenzae type B, which is known to cause a sort of meningitis, and other diseases. (Granma, 8/4/06)

April 12: Three top Cuban scientists will be in Kuala Lumpur to showcase their pioneering biotechnology products and share their experience with their Malaysian and Singaporean counterparts. They will zoom in on the treatment of cancer and the advancements in immuno- therapy (experimental cancer vaccines) emerging from Cuba which have proved successful against the disease. A local biotech company which has worked with Cuban scientists for years, Bioven Sdn Bhd, is bringing Dr Augstin Lage, Dr Rolando Perez and Dr Gerardo Guillen down for a Cancer Immuno- therapy workshop at the NCI Cancer Hospital. (New Straits Times, 12/4/06)

April 17: Cuba and India make a powerful force leading world biotechnology, asserted P.Chidambaram, finance minister of the Asian nation, during the opening of a modern institution for the production of humanized monoclonal antibodies h-R3. The official highlighted the importance of both nations´s integration in the biotechnological field strengthened by the creation of the joint enterprise Biocon Biopharmaceutical, in charge of producing and commercializing the product. Doctors Agustin Lage, director of the Cuban Center of Molecular Immunology and Kiran Mazumder, Biocon president, chaired the opening ceremony. (Prensa Latina, 17/4/06)

May 17: Cuban medical researchers said that they have found the only effective solution to date for treating advanced diabetic foot ulcers and avoiding the lower-limb amputations that are often required. The director of commercial development at the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center, Ernesto Lopez Mola, said at a press conference that the institute's international patent for its drug CITOPROT-P had been accepted by Australia, Singapore and South Africa for treatment of the condition. He said that the development of the product focused on patients with category 3 and 4 ulcers, the most severe on the Wagner scale. "There is no alternative to CITOPROT-P in the world at this time," he said, adding that the treatment includes ulcers with neuropathic and ischemic origins and had a 56 percent success rate in patients treated in Cuba. (EFE, 17/5/06)

May 17: The director of the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) of Cuba, Luis Herrera, questioned a study carried out in Germany that proclaimed the ineffectiveness of the cholesterol-lowering drug policosanol (PPG), produced and distributed by the island. "Not everything that is published on internet is true," said Herrera in reply to questions on the results of a study by researcher Heiner Berthold, from the University of Colone. (AFP, 17/5/06)

May 19: Cuban scientists have unveiled a new infant pentavalent vaccine that protects against hepatitis B, tetanus, whooping cough, diphtheria and haemophilus influenza type b, according to Prensa Latina. Known as Heberpenta, the new vaccine has been developed by scientists from the research institute Instituto Finlay and the Bioproducts National Centre (Biocen). The new product combines five antigens and has proved to be safe and efficient during clinical trials. (Global Insight Daily Analysis, 19/5/06)

May 23: Experts from 29 countries gathered in Cuba to attend the third International Symposium for Fighting Vectors, a Pan-American conference which analyzes the control of disease-carrying insects. Specialists from Cuba's National Hygiene and Epidemiology Agency, and the National Workers Health Institute will give details of Cuba's progress in fighting these disease carriers. The meeting was designed to fight Aedes Aegypti and other malaria- and dengue-fever carrying mosquitoes. The two diseases strike more than one million people each year. The meeting, which is being held in the city of Varadero, 134 km east of Havana, is being attended by the Cuban public health minister, representatives of the Pedro Kouri Institute and the Pan-American Health Organization. (Xinhua, 23/5/06)

May 31: Cuban health authorities approved the use of the first monoclonal antibody obtained from transgenic plants in the country, the Cuban News Agency (ACN) reported. The Center for State Control of Medication Quality (CECMED), attached to the Ministry of Public Health, gave the green light to the use of the Cuban-made monoclonal antibody, as a reagent in the purification of the active pharmaceutical ingredient of the vaccine against hepatitis B (Heberbiovac-HB). The antibody, which is produced by the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center (CIGB) in Havana, contributes to reducing the cost of vaccines. The CECMED certifies that both the monoclonal antibody and the new process to produce it follow nationally- and internationally-accepted quality standards for the pharmaceutical industry. (Prensa Latina, 31/5/06)

June 21: Colombian businesspeople have been in contact with Cuba's pharmaceutical institutions proposing production in that South American nation, the Colombian Minister of Social Protection Diego Palacio Betancourt affirmed in Havana during a visit accompanied by a delegation from his country. The Colombian government is ready to resume purchasing vaccines manufactured in Cuba, as it did from 1992 to 2002, and has decided that it is willing to look for alternative ways to attain "any product necessary for public health which is of high quality and has a good price." During their stay on the island, Palacio and his delegation met with Dr. José Ramón Balaguer Cabrera, member of the Political Bureau and the Cuban health minister and toured several scientific institutions including the Immunoassay Centre. (Granma International, 21/6/06)

June 23: In what scientists billed as a breakthrough, Cuba has developed the first monoclonal antibody from transgenic plants -- dubbed a "plantibody" -- used in making a human vaccine. The antibody, CB-Hep.1, is from an "ancestor" of the tobacco plant. It replaces an antibody obtained from mice in Cuba's manufacturing of the hepatitis B vaccine, researchers told reporters in Havana. Carlos Borroto, deputy director at Cuba's Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Center (CIGB), said the plantibody had won approval from Cuba's medication quality control agency, part of the public health ministry. CB-Hep.1 is the first plantibody authorized anywhere in the world for manufacturing a vaccine. Borroto said since the breakthrough was achieved, "145 million doses have been exploited and not a single problem in their use has been reported." (AFP, 24/6/06) 

July 14: The application of modern technology for early detection of neoplastic diseases has allowed Cuba to attain remarkable results in fighting breast cancer, the main malignant illness affecting women worldwide. Hundreds of mammography studies on Cuban women have resulted in early diagnose of neoplastic mammary glands, allowing to make timely therapeutic decisions including surgery, chemo and radiotherapy. The preventive work begins at the office of the community family doctor, with suggestions for breast self-examination. Other actions to fight breast cancer include the clinical follow-up of women with previous cases of the illness in the family, along with recommendations for a healthy diet. (Prensa Latina, 14/7/06)

July 28: More than 600 new cases of dengue fever have been recorded in the Havana municipalities of El Cerro, Centro Habana, and Arroyo Naranjo, employees of the Public Health department said. Authorities have been meeting with physicians and nurses to appraise them of the situation. They have also ordered a clean up campaign in Old Havana, presumably to eliminate breeding areas for the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the vector for the disease. The last outbreak of dengue in the Cuban capital was in January 2002. (Cubanet, 28/7/06)

September 1: Some 1,500 Cuban children in eastern Las Tunas province will be immunized against five different diseases as part of the first stage in the administration of a new Cuban vaccine nationwide. Dorctor Sergio Garcia, Head of the Immunization Program at Las Tunas Provincial Epidemiology and Hygiene Center, told reporters that all conditions are ready to administer the dose on children from 2 to 6 months of age in local health care centers. Known as Heberpenta, the new vaccines combats  diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type B and will be applied in 494 polyclinics throughout the country to an estimated 50,000 babies during the remainder of 2006. (AIN, 1/9/06)

September 26: New hip prosthesis technologies are being applied in Cuban medical facilities and in 2007 the generalized introduction of new knee technologies is expected, stated Dr. Rodrigo Alvarez Cambras, who chaired the recently concluded International Orthopedics and Traumatology Congress at the Plaza America Convention Center in Varadero, which was attended by 300 delegates from 10 countries. "Cuba has set the standards in orthopedics, our school has trained professionals from many countries in Latin American and other latitudes," the professor, also director of the Frank País International Orthopedic Scientific Complex, told the press. He recalled that in aspects such as the RALCA external fixators, which have been in use since 1971 throughout most of the world, and in sports traumatology, "we are the vanguard and reference for experts, even those from the most developed countries." (Granma International, 26/9/06)

October 4: Cuba introduced a new medical device to facilitate the diagnosis of vascular peripheral diseases, official sources said. The Cuban-made equipment, Digital ANGIODIN PD-3000 detects ailments like arrhythmia, arterial failure, erectile sexual dysfunction and micro and macro vessel failures at an early stage, Prensa Latina news agency reported. The equipment is simple in design and useful for the vascular haemal-dynamic laboratories. According to the National Information Agency, the island nation has exported this equipment to Venezuela, and is all set for its production by the Medical Biophysical Centre headquartered in Santiago de Cuba. (IANS, 4/10/06)

October 19: Cuba and China have agreed to launch a biotechnology venture to develop neurotechnology products in China, official Cuban media announced. Raul Morgalo, deputy chief at Cuba's Neurosciences Institute, and Xihong Wu, a representative of the University of Beijing, signed a letter of intent on the deal after two-day bilateral talks in Havana, the Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma reported. The venture will be the third between the two countries. The first two biotech ventures produce and market products from Cuba's Molecular Immunology Center and its Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Center. (AFP, 19/10/06) 

October 24: Bactivec, a biological product produced in Cuba, will be used throughout the island against the reproduction of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, the agent transmitting dengue fever, Granma newspaper reported. Developed by the Cuban company Labiofam, the product rapidly destroys larvae of Culex, Anopheles and Aedes, the latter a dengue and yellow fever carrier. Over 62,000 liters of the product have been sprayed by helicopter in the city of Havana and Havana province, as part of the health drive implemented in the island. (Prensa Latina, 24/10/06)

November 15: A new synthetic product with anti-tumor properties has been patented by a team of scientists from the Cuban Center of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB). The first phase of the clinical trials was completed with 31 patients with cervical cancer, Granma newspaper published. Silvio E. Perea Rodriguez, a doctor in Biological Sciences, presented the test results during the Biotechnology Havana 2006 convention. He explained to the audience that the product is a peptide that inhibits and kills the kinase CK2 enzyme, found in high levels in malignant tumors. (ACN, 15/11/06)

November 2: Biotechnology has become one of Cuba's top ten exports with revenues of more than $200 million a year, according to sector sources. The vice-president of the organizing committee of "Biotechnology Havana 2006", Gerardo Guillén, pointed out that "the health benefits are much more important than the money these exports may generate". (EFEAGRO, 2/11/06)

November 14: The Biotechnology Havana 2006 convention got underway at the Havana Convention Center with specialists from more than 40 countries and an inauguration address by Dr. Luis Herrera, director of the Cuban Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB). The eminent Cuban scientists told participants that the national biotechnology sector now has 38 products of proven effectiveness and quality that have been registered and are being sold in more than 45 countries, making a significant impact in the lives of people around the world. (Granma, 14/11/06)

November 14: During the Congress on Biotechnology Havana 2006 that took place in the Cuban capital, the 1988 German Nobel Prizewinner for Chemistry, Robert Huber, expressed interest in maintaining an active relationship with the island, in order to promote scientific and business opportunities in the development of medicines to treat autoimmune diseases. The Congress, which has generated a lot of expectations in the scientific community as it is attended by over 600 delegates from at least 40 countries, has been a window on Cuba's efforts in research and development in the field of tropical and autoimmune diseases. (Global Insight, 14/11/06)

November 23: The 7th session of the Cuba-Belarussia Joint Cooperation Commission wound up in Minsk with the signing of a document aimed to protect accords on higher education, civil aeronautics, and radio and television. The commission gave particular attention to issues linked to transportation and current negotiations on the production of vaccines and medicines as well as Cuba's experiences in the field of biotechnology. A Byelorussian delegation is expected to travel shortly to the Caribbean island to conclude negotiations on this last topic. (Prensa Latina, 23/11/06)

November 25: Vietnam and Cuba are ready to deepen formal cooperation after signing a memorandum of understanding for the construction of a biotechnology center with Cuban assessing in this Asian nation. The protocol was inked by Luis Herrera, general director of Havana-based Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), and Nguyen Thu Van, general director of Company for Vaccines and Biological Production (VABIOTECH). Cuba will grant technical assistance for the designing of a center in Hanoi, and will train technical and specialized staff who will work in that institution. (Thanhnien News, 25/11/06)

December 1: Cuba has launched full-tilt into the vaccine industry to compete on the international market with its products, some of which are unique.  Cuban scientists are devoting themselves to investigating therapeutic products against cancer, malaria and cholera, diseases that ravage the people of poor nations. However, the first destination of every new pharmaceutical is the Cuban market and the national hospital network. Medical sources indicated that eight of the 13 vaccines included in the national immunization program are produced locally.  "Half of our research projects deal with vaccines, which are financially unattractive to the big pharmaceutical companies," Carlos Borroto, deputy director of the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Research Center (CIGB), told the press. The "West Havana Scientific Pole" is made up of the CIGB, the Finlay Institute for Serum and Vaccines, the Center of Molecular Immunology, the National Center for Scientific Research and the National Biopreparations Center. The Pole institutions cooperate among them, and each project usually involves more than one unit. (IPS, 1/12/06)