Cuba sells medicines and health technology to more than 50 countries

Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 November 2014, 21:59 by GxMedia

Havana, Nov 25 (EFE).- Cuba sells medicines and health technologies to more than 50 countries, including vaccines, generic medications, equipment and diagnostic systems, the official daily Juventud Rebelde reported Tuesday.

“About 30 new products from Cuba and a group of generics are being exported to Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) member countries and other nations of Asia, Africa and even Europe,” said the director of Pharmaceutical Services at the Public Health Ministry, Victor Faife, in remarks published by the daily.

Figures compiled by state-run “BioCubaFarma,” a biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry group, show that the communist island is exporting “technologies and diagnostic equipment that allow early detection of congenital deformities, hereditary illnesses and other conditions.”

According to the vice president of the group, Gustavo Sierra, Cuba has factories on several continents and among the key products manufactured at those facilities are hearing aids and Heberprot-P, a medicine for treating diabetic ulcers with an eye toward preventing amputations.

The Cuban pharmaceutical industry produces 70 percent of the 888 medications sold in the country, according to official figures.

The newspaper emphasized that the island imports 290 of those medicines and currently is doing research on 150 of them “to replace the imports.”