Cuba sells its medical expertise
By Tom Fawthrop
reporting from Havana, Cuba |
Cuba's struggling economy has been boosted by the successful export of its medical technology abroad, and by health tourism within the country.
Cuba's position in the developing world has always been something of a paradox.
Its low material living standards and crisis-ridden economy leads to a low per capita income, but President Fidel Castro's Caribbean blend of socialism has developed a public health system that places Cuba in another league altogether on human development indexes.
Basic health indicators are comparable to the achievements of welfare systems in western Europe.
Education, science and health, the cornerstone of the 1959 revolution, are closely linked together in Cuba's development of an advanced medical sector.
The export of pharmaceutical products, vaccines and biotechnology helps to pay for the growing costs of funding medical research and a free health system with comprehensive coverage.
Today the medical sector ranks sixth in terms of exports and services, providing the country with vitally needed foreign exchange that was worth $250m a year in 2002.
Out of that figure biotechnology alone accounted for more than $150m.
Vaccines
In the 1980s millions of dollars were invested by the Cuban government in developing modern vaccines laboratories and a massive centre for biotechnology.
Since the end of Soviet aid in 1989, and the acute economic crisis of the 1990s, Cuba has seen the excellence of its medico-scientific institutions as a strategic resource for developing new medical products for export.
The country's first breakthrough in medical research was its discovery and patenting of meningitis-B vaccine in late 1980s.
It has been successfully exported to cope with epidemics in South American countries including Brazil and Argentina.
The vaccine has now been licensed to GlaxoSmithKline who will now market it in Europe and it is hoped eventually in the USA.
Political obstacles
Cuba's attempts to gain a foothold in the international pharmaceutical market have come up against formidable obstacles, both commercial and political, with the stringent US trade embargo.
This socialist island's strength has been in the quality of its products, not in marketing and export know-how.
During the last few years the biggest earner for Cuban biotechnology has been the export of Hepatitis-B vaccine to more than 30 countries.
The Cuban vaccine is widely regarded as the more effective than Belgian and US-produced vaccines.
Cuba maybe judged poor by material living standards, but its medical sector is a strong demonstration of its wealth in human resources.
Joint ventures with China, India and Russia have been established to set up vaccine plants in their countries based on a transfer of Cuban technology.
Health tourism
Another growing source of income is health tourism, with a number of specialist hospitals, clinics, health spas and resorts catering to foreign visitors.
Last year more than 5000 foreign patients travelled to Cuba for a wide range of treatments including eye-surgery, neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's' disease, and orthopaedics.
Most patients are from Latin America.
However the unique Cuban treatment for retinitis pigmentosa, often known as night blindness, has attracted many patients from Europe and North America,
Health tourism generates revenues of around $40m a year.
More than 500 different medical products are manufactured by the pharmaceutical industry, which during the1980s provided 80% of domestic needs.
Now most supplies of raw materials for the manufacture of antibiotics and other drugs are sourced from China, but production still has not recovered to pre-1990s levels.
Many drugs are supplied to hospitals by international aid from Cuba Solidarity Groups around the world.
Joint ventures
The special obstacles to Cuba breaking into the western market have led to a policy of trying to find joint venture partners, which currently include a Canadian, German and a Spanish company.
Cuba's cutting-edge products for neck and breast cancer have caused the biggest stir in the world of biotechnology.
They have just been licensed to a German pharmaceutical company, with rights to develop the drug TheraCIM h-R3 for the European market.
Analysts say so far the commercial rewards for Cuba's many medical innovations have only been a fraction of their potential.
But if TheraCim h-R3 receives regulatory approval, it could become a standard cancer treatment in Europe in four or five years, with estimated sales of around $3bn a year.
In the long-term, Fidel Castro's big gamble with the heavy state investment in biotechnology may finally pay a dividend not only in health benefits, but also in the top-notch economic rewards that have so far eluded him.
It would also be a very satisfying for Cuban scientists to feel their research and development, which is not driven by the profit motive, had been successful in the world marketplace.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/business/3284995.stm
Published: 2003/11/21 08:29:24 GMT
© BBC MMVII
Cuba to help Caribbean fight Aids
|
| By Stephen Gibbs
BBC correspondent in Cuba |
The Cuban government has offered to train nurses and doctors throughout the Caribbean as part of the region's fight against Aids. Cuba also says it will provide anti-retroviral drugs to its neighbours at well below market prices.
The offer has been enthusiastically accepted by representatives of Caricom - the Caribbean regional grouping that has been meeting in Havana.
Only sub-Saharan Africa has higher HIV infection rates than the Caribbean.
But Cuba, the region's largest island, has largely escaped the disease.
It has one of the world's very lowest infection rates. That is for a combination of reasons.
Cheap anti-retrovirals
One is that when HIV was first discovered in the mid-80s Cuba controversially quarantined those it found to be carrying it.
The Communist-led island also has the advantage of a good public health system and a largely non-travelling, non-drug injecting population.
It is now offering its expertise in Aids prevention and treatment to its neighbours. Cuba says it will give scholarships to 50 doctors a year from across the Caribbean to study in its hospitals.
It is also proposing to build training centres on neighbouring islands and sell its home-produced anti-retroviral drugs at highly competitive prices.
The Barbados Minister of Foreign Affairs, Billie Miller, described the proposal as spectacular.
She warned that Aids threatened the survival of people and economies across the Caribbean and that Cuba's offer was one its neighbours could not refuse.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/3899657.stm
Published: 2004/07/16 10:15:06 GMT
© BBC MMVII
BBC's Stephen Gibbs has to leave Cuba
Really some disappointing news. Stephen Gibbs who has been reporting for the BBC for several years has to leave Cuba because his reports were deemed 'negative'. Quite amazing. I have been reading a lot of his stories on BBC and they were always very close to reality and very neutral. Things ain't going well over there... Think Castro is dead...
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Packing up home 'easy' in needy Cuba
Packing up after having his press accreditation withdrawn, BBC correspondent Stephen Gibbs reflects on whether the Cuban authorities really need to go to the lengths they do to control information.
Cuba's people struggle with daily pursuits
Moving home, they say, is one of life's five most stressful experiences. It comes in at number three. Ranked a bit below bereavement, a bit above divorce.
But in Cuba it is different. Packing up a home in Cuba is easy.
The reason is that you do not have to go through that agonising problem of wondering about what to do with all your junk. You can sell it, or give it away. All of it. In a matter of hours.
Cuba is a place where almost all consumer items are prohibitively expensive, or, more likely, not available. And scarcity breeds desire.
Most Cubans, and plenty of foreigners living on the island, spend the majority of their time not thinking about the country's future, or transitional governments, or the health of Fidel Castro, but on rather more mundane things. Like how to find a square meal, a fridge that works, or an electric fan.
Farewell 'presents'
I had a first-hand glimpse of all this when I returned to my home in Old Havana, just days after hearing the disappointing news that I was one of three foreign correspondents to be stripped of their press accreditation by the Cuban government. Our reporting was deemed "negative" by a nameless committee.
As I entered my apartment the phone was ringing. It was an ex-pat friend from who I had not heard from for some time. The conversation went along these lines: "I am so sorry to hear you are being thrown out," he said, "what a disgraceful attempt to intimidate the foreign press."
And then, after a brief pause, the real point of the call: "That sofa in your living room... are you selling it? And what about the microwave?"
As the news spread that I was on my way out, my Cuban neighbours congratulated me on what they saw as a promotion. Sadly, and often inaccurately, many Cubans assume that anyone who is leaving the island is going on to better things.
Then came the not-so-subtle requests for a farewell present. I soon realised that anything would do. A broken watch, a 2005 calendar, all were received with embarrassing gratitude.
Unexpected visitor
I had little time to decide which memories of my life in Cuba I would keep for myself.
One I did manage to save was a copy of the first story I had filed, just days after arriving in Havana.
I had gone to meet some members of the Hemingway family, at the elegant hilltop villa where Ernest lived until 1960. We all gathered in the garden to hear about a project to archive the author's papers.
Then something completely unexpected happened. Fidel Castro showed up.
In his military uniform, he walked, slightly awkwardly, around the side of the swimming pool where Ava Gardner had once swum naked. He apologised for interrupting, and then, with his arm around one of the female Hemingways, gave a lengthy speech. He ended it by saying how much he regretted not getting to know Ernest Hemingway better.
"When you are young, you think everyone is going to live for ever," he said.
Censored jokes
Back in my apartment, I put the copy of the story in my "keep" file, together with something else which brought back another memory.
It was a DVD of the film Hotel Rwanda.
Even cigars appear to have political sensitivities
One Saturday night, a couple of years ago, the Oscar-nominated film was put on Cuban state television.
I was at home watching it, when, a few minutes after the opening titles, I noticed that some shots had been clumsily repeated. It had been edited.
I happened to have a DVD of the original version. I put it on to compare the two.
It became obvious that the Cuban censors had gone to the trouble of cutting out a 30 second portion of the film. The banned images contained a couple of harmless jokes about Cuban cigars.
State control
One of the enduring questions that has crossed my mind whilst working in Cuba is whether the government really needs to go to the lengths it does in managing the flow of information to its people.
Cuban officials are surprisingly unapologetic on the issue. Their justification is that Cuba is in the midst of an undeclared war with a shameless US administration which is determined to undermine the Cuban revolution.
They sometimes allude to what they seem to regard as the British government's distinguished censorship of the press during World War II.
But still I wonder whether all the control is necessary. One of the side effects of 48 years with the same leader is an extraordinary degree of resignation amongst the people. It works both ways.
Those that support the revolution believe that their future is in good hands. Those that yearn for change feel that things are out of their hands.
Given that, would it really threaten the status quo if you could buy a foreign paper in the streets of Havana? Or if the foreign press in Cuba were able to act a little more freely?
I doubt it. But clearly someone right at the top feels that such an experiment is not worth the risk.
On Cuba, the U.S. is an island
On Cuba, the U.S. is an island
The president's hard-line anti-Castro policy is costing him international support.
By Paolo Spadoni
October 31, 2007
In an emotional speech last week before government officials, prominent Cuban exiles and families of jailed Cuban dissidents, President Bush unveiled new U.S. initiatives aimed at hastening a democratic transition in Cuba. He also ruled out any detente with the communist nation even if interim President Raul Castro were to permanently succeed his brother, Fidel, and enact substantial economic reforms.
Stressing that an eventual transfer of power from Fidel to Raul would simply amount to "exchanging one dictator for another," Bush announced the creation of a multibillion-dollar international "freedom fund" that would help pay for infrastructure improvements and other programs in Cuba after the island's citizens rid themselves of their "tropical gulag." Furthermore, Bush declared that the United States is willing to offer scholarships to students in Cuba and to license religious groups and nongovernmental organizations to provide computers and Internet access to the Cuban people, "but only if the Cuban regime, the ruling class, gets out of the way."
Leaving aside Bush's archaic rhetoric and his dangerous message for the Cuban people to "rise up to demand their liberty," one cannot avoid wondering how he can realistically seek financial contributions from other countries to support U.S. pro-democracy efforts in Cuba. These are the same countries that have repeatedly condemned Washington's hostile policy toward Havana and told the U.S. to change its unilateral approach.
Indeed, coming from a leader who has neglected the will of the international community for years, Bush's calls for a Cuba democracy fund will likely fall on deaf ears.
The U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday held its annual vote on U.S. economic sanctions with respect to Cuba, and it overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling for an end to the 45-year-old embargo and objecting to U.S. laws and regulations compelling other countries to adhere to it. Before Congress' passage of the Cuban Democracy Act in 1992, Cuba had not been able to obtain a General Assembly resolution against the U.S. embargo. That law, among other things, prevents cargo vessels from third countries from docking in U.S. ports if they visited Cuba in the previous six months. In November 1992, because of international concern regarding the extraterritorial character of the U.S. legislation, the United Nations condemned the embargo by a vote of 59 to 3 (with 71 countries abstaining). Since then, the vote has become more lopsided. In 1998, 157 governments expressed disapproval of U.S. sanctions (with 12 abstentions).
Bush's tougher stance on Havana and his pressure on other countries to curtail their business relationships with the Castro regime have just galvanized the international community even more and isolated the U.S. further. The number of countries opposing the embargo in the U.N. peaked at 184 this year, with only Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau siding with the United States.
It is worth mentioning that several European and Latin American governments have voted in favor of U.N. resolutions criticizing the human rights situation in Cuba. The reality is that many countries share U.S. hopes for democratic changes on the island, but they disagree with Washington over the best course of action to stimulate those changes.
Even close U.S. allies (and perhaps likely contributors to the proposed freedom fund) such as Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic -- touted by Bush as "vital sources of support and encouragement to Cuba's brave democratic opposition" -- rejected U.S. sanctions in the United Nations.
In short, if the White House is serious in its attempt to reach out to other countries on Cuba, it needs to devise a foreign policy that is more in line with the position of the rest of the world and less driven by domestic political considerations.
When a billboard war between Cuba and the U.S. broke out in early 2006 in Havana, one of the messages displayed on a huge electronic sign at the U.S. Interest Section was a famous quote by former Polish President Lech Walesa: "Only in totalitarian societies do governments talk and talk at their people and never listen."
As the self-proclaimed leader of the free world, Bush should stop pandering to a shrinking group of Cuban American hard-liners and start listening to that world he claims to represent.
Paolo Spadoni is a visiting assistant professor in the department of political science at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla.
*He ain't my leader. LS* On Cuba, the U.S. is an island
On Cuba, the U.S. is an island
The president's hard-line anti-Castro policy is costing him international support.
By Paolo Spadoni
October 31, 2007
In an emotional speech last week before government officials, prominent Cuban exiles and families of jailed Cuban dissidents, President Bush unveiled new U.S. initiatives aimed at hastening a democratic transition in Cuba. He also ruled out any detente with the communist nation even if interim President Raul Castro were to permanently succeed his brother, Fidel, and enact substantial economic reforms.
Stressing that an eventual transfer of power from Fidel to Raul would simply amount to "exchanging one dictator for another," Bush announced the creation of a multibillion-dollar international "freedom fund" that would help pay for infrastructure improvements and other programs in Cuba after the island's citizens rid themselves of their "tropical gulag." Furthermore, Bush declared that the United States is willing to offer scholarships to students in Cuba and to license religious groups and nongovernmental organizations to provide computers and Internet access to the Cuban people, "but only if the Cuban regime, the ruling class, gets out of the way."
Leaving aside Bush's archaic rhetoric and his dangerous message for the Cuban people to "rise up to demand their liberty," one cannot avoid wondering how he can realistically seek financial contributions from other countries to support U.S. pro-democracy efforts in Cuba. These are the same countries that have repeatedly condemned Washington's hostile policy toward Havana and told the U.S. to change its unilateral approach.
Indeed, coming from a leader who has neglected the will of the international community for years, Bush's calls for a Cuba democracy fund will likely fall on deaf ears.
The U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday held its annual vote on U.S. economic sanctions with respect to Cuba, and it overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling for an end to the 45-year-old embargo and objecting to U.S. laws and regulations compelling other countries to adhere to it.
Before Congress' passage of the Cuban Democracy Act in 1992, Cuba had not been able to obtain a General Assembly resolution against the U.S. embargo. That law, among other things, prevents cargo vessels from third countries from docking in U.S. ports if they visited Cuba in the previous six months. In November 1992, because of international concern regarding the extraterritorial character of the U.S. legislation, the United Nations condemned the embargo by a vote of 59 to 3 (with 71 countries abstaining). Since then, the vote has become more lopsided. In 1998, 157 governments expressed disapproval of U.S. sanctions (with 12 abstentions).
Bush's tougher stance on Havana and his pressure on other countries to curtail their business relationships with the Castro regime have just galvanized the international community even more and isolated the U.S. further. The number of countries opposing the embargo in the U.N. peaked at 184 this year, with only Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau siding with the United States.
It is worth mentioning that several European and Latin American governments have voted in favor of U.N. resolutions criticizing the human rights situation in Cuba. The reality is that many countries share U.S. hopes for democratic changes on the island, but they disagree with Washington over the best course of action to stimulate those changes.
Even close U.S. allies (and perhaps likely contributors to the proposed freedom fund) such as Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic -- touted by Bush as "vital sources of support and encouragement to Cuba's brave democratic opposition" -- rejected U.S. sanctions in the United Nations.
In short, if the White House is serious in its attempt to reach out to other countries on Cuba, it needs to devise a foreign policy that is more in line with the position of the rest of the world and less driven by domestic political considerations.
When a billboard war between Cuba and the U.S. broke out in early 2006 in Havana, one of the messages displayed on a huge electronic sign at the U.S. Interest Section was a famous quote by former Polish President Lech Walesa: "Only in totalitarian societies do governments talk and talk at their people and never listen."
As the self-proclaimed leader of the free world, Bush should stop pandering to a shrinking group of Cuban American hard-liners and start listening to that world he claims to represent.
Paolo Spadoni is a visiting assistant professor in the department of political science at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla.
The president's hard-line anti-Castro policy is costing him international support.
By Paolo Spadoni
October 31, 2007
In an emotional speech last week before government officials, prominent Cuban exiles and families of jailed Cuban dissidents, President Bush unveiled new U.S. initiatives aimed at hastening a democratic transition in Cuba. He also ruled out any detente with the communist nation even if interim President Raul Castro were to permanently succeed his brother, Fidel, and enact substantial economic reforms.
Stressing that an eventual transfer of power from Fidel to Raul would simply amount to "exchanging one dictator for another," Bush announced the creation of a multibillion-dollar international "freedom fund" that would help pay for infrastructure improvements and other programs in Cuba after the island's citizens rid themselves of their "tropical gulag." Furthermore, Bush declared that the United States is willing to offer scholarships to students in Cuba and to license religious groups and nongovernmental organizations to provide computers and Internet access to the Cuban people, "but only if the Cuban regime, the ruling class, gets out of the way."
Leaving aside Bush's archaic rhetoric and his dangerous message for the Cuban people to "rise up to demand their liberty," one cannot avoid wondering how he can realistically seek financial contributions from other countries to support U.S. pro-democracy efforts in Cuba. These are the same countries that have repeatedly condemned Washington's hostile policy toward Havana and told the U.S. to change its unilateral approach.
Indeed, coming from a leader who has neglected the will of the international community for years, Bush's calls for a Cuba democracy fund will likely fall on deaf ears.
The U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday held its annual vote on U.S. economic sanctions with respect to Cuba, and it overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling for an end to the 45-year-old embargo and objecting to U.S. laws and regulations compelling other countries to adhere to it.
Before Congress' passage of the Cuban Democracy Act in 1992, Cuba had not been able to obtain a General Assembly resolution against the U.S. embargo. That law, among other things, prevents cargo vessels from third countries from docking in U.S. ports if they visited Cuba in the previous six months. In November 1992, because of international concern regarding the extraterritorial character of the U.S. legislation, the United Nations condemned the embargo by a vote of 59 to 3 (with 71 countries abstaining). Since then, the vote has become more lopsided. In 1998, 157 governments expressed disapproval of U.S. sanctions (with 12 abstentions).
Bush's tougher stance on Havana and his pressure on other countries to curtail their business relationships with the Castro regime have just galvanized the international community even more and isolated the U.S. further. The number of countries opposing the embargo in the U.N. peaked at 184 this year, with only Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau siding with the United States.
It is worth mentioning that several European and Latin American governments have voted in favor of U.N. resolutions criticizing the human rights situation in Cuba. The reality is that many countries share U.S. hopes for democratic changes on the island, but they disagree with Washington over the best course of action to stimulate those changes.
Even close U.S. allies (and perhaps likely contributors to the proposed freedom fund) such as Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic -- touted by Bush as "vital sources of support and encouragement to Cuba's brave democratic opposition" -- rejected U.S. sanctions in the United Nations.
In short, if the White House is serious in its attempt to reach out to other countries on Cuba, it needs to devise a foreign policy that is more in line with the position of the rest of the world and less driven by domestic political considerations.
When a billboard war between Cuba and the U.S. broke out in early 2006 in Havana, one of the messages displayed on a huge electronic sign at the U.S. Interest Section was a famous quote by former Polish President Lech Walesa: "Only in totalitarian societies do governments talk and talk at their people and never listen."
As the self-proclaimed leader of the free world, Bush should stop pandering to a shrinking group of Cuban American hard-liners and start listening to that world he claims to represent.
Paolo Spadoni is a visiting assistant professor in the department of political science at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla.
