Cuba starts making money from its support for medical R&D

Cuba starts making money from its support for medical R&D

Source: SciDev - Wed, 16 Apr 2014 11:27 AM

Author: SciDev.Net - Katia Moskvitch



Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of

Thomson Reuters Foundation.



Cuba's long-term investment in medical research is starting to pay off

economically, with the communist nation poised to sell products and

drugs around the world, said Salvador Moncada, a consultant with the Pan

American Health Organization, a regional office of the WHO.



His assessment comes as the Cuban parliament approved a law that

promises foreign investors generous tax exemptions for joint ventures

with companies on the island — as long as they can get round the US

tradeembargo against the state.



Cuba already has a global reputation for the excellence of its doctors.

For many decades, especially during the Cold War, Cuba dispatched teams

of medics as a form of foreign diplomacy.



"Cuba is now selling products worldwide that are coming directly from

the research investment," said Moncada. "It takes many years for these

investments in science and technology to come to fruition."



Moncada spoke to SciDev.Net during a conference on transnational science

knowledge networks at the University of West London, United Kingdom,

last month (28 March).



"Cuba has always had a specific interest in the development of science

and technology, and in the area of biomedicine they have been very

successful," said Moncada.



For many years, Cuban research relied on subsidies from its fellow

communist state, the Soviet Union.



So when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Cuban research initially

stalled. But this loss of support also helped to bring renewal —

especially in thebiotech sector — because Cuba was forced to look for

alternative commercial and scientific partners, according to Rainer

Schultz, a Cuban expert at Harvard University, United States.



Miriam Palacios-Callender, a Cuban biomedical researcher who now works

at University College London, agreed that there was significant change

after the Soviet Union's fall.



"Soon after the collapse of the socialist block, the Cuban science,

technology and innovation system began a rapid transformation," she told

SciDev.Net. However, she added, this "might not have been a direct

consequence of the new geopolitical situation, but a result of

long-standing political will to develop science and technology for the

benefit of society and the investment in biotechnology in the early 80s".



During the Soviet era, Cuba mostly focused on pure research. But as far

back as 1965, state enterprises grew out of research institutions such

as the National Centre for Scientific Research, adding the more

practical elements of production and commercialisation to existing

research and development, according to Palacios-Callender.



At first the enterprises worked to integrate the new research into the

national pharmaceutical industry, so they could supply Cubans with

generic drugs, said Palacios-Callender.



In 1990, the government established the Ministry of Science, Technology

and Environment to harness Cuban scientific knowledge for more

sustainable development.



"By 2008, more than 100 research projects were generating more than 60

new products, which were mainly protected by intellectual property

rights, and more than 500 patents were submitted abroad," said

Palacios-Callender.



For instance, in 2004, Cuba signed a deal to transfer technology related

to a vaccine to treat cancer to US company CancerVax.



Until recently, the state was the sole supporter of such research and

development efforts. But the situation is changing. In November 2012, a

private company called BioCubaFarma was created, and a growing number of

private enterprises are operating with the government's consent.



This fundamental shift in the pharmaceutical sector, from one

administrated by the state to one based on entrepreneurial principles,

could lead to a successful new era of growth for Cuban science, said

Palacios-Callender.



Source: Cuba starts making money from its support for medical R&D -

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