Will they bear fruit?
Will Cuba’s big biotech plans bear fruit?
The Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIBG) in Havana is promoting more than 50 research and development projects in the areas of health, agriculture, and the environment, Cuba’s government said this week.
The projects span across a variety of disciplines, including human and veterinary vaccines, recombinant proteins for therapeutic use, diagnostic systems, plant biology and aquaculture, among many others.
A notable result that has emerged from one of these projects is the treatment of some 50,000 Cuban patients with Herberpot-P, which helps to heal diabetic foot ulcers and reduces the risk of amputation in 78 percent of cases.
The product has also spread to international markets, and is now included in the list of essential and vital medicines in Russia.
Other purported medical advances to come out of these projects include the development of HeberNasvac, which treats chronic Hepatitis B, and HeberFast Line Maternitest II, which provides women greater accessibility to a convenient and fast way to get a reliable result on the possibility of pregnancy.
In the agricultural sector, the CIGB has been marketing, both domestically and internationally, a vaccine that controls ticks adversely affecting cattle.
The vaccine has found its way to Venezuela, Panama, Nicaragua, Brazil and Mexico.
