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 -
http://www.trust.org/item/20140416112729-awxnq/?source=hppartner