Meanwhile, Cuba’s potential lies in its drug R&D and manufacturing infrastructure, whose robustness stands in contrast to the country’s economic decay. Cuba had a meningococcal disease vaccine more than two decades before us and went on to develop medicines for lung cancer, hepatitis B, diabetic foot ulcers and other ailments that remain unavailable here due to the embargo. Its achievements have gotten attention from the U.S. already: On May 15, I
reported that the Buffalo, N.Y., Roswell Park Cancer Institute was seeking business partners around a planned U.S. clinical trial of the Cuban lung cancer vaccine Cimavax. But a drawback companies may find is a preference by the Cuban government for joint ventures, several experts said, while Abivax CEO Hartmut Ehrlich said Cuban companies prefer to maintain full rights to products for Cuba and its allies such as Venezuela.