Cuba: Cuba approves, makes available lung cancer vaccine

Cuba approves, makes available lung cancer vaccine - *See article below from: Reuters by Jeff Franks.

Luis Moro comment on article

I’ve been personally aware of the high-end private negotiations that are active with certain sectors of industry with Cuba. One such area is the pharmaceutical field.  I am not claiming to be an expert or authority on the topic. But I do believe this is accurate information given the source and, again, my own personal conversations with actual attorneys handling the on-going subject. 

With that said, I expect that many of the pro-embargo against Cuba community will say this if false information, propaganda and more communist lies. Odds are, these will be the same people who say there is “no embargo on Cuba.” 

Barack Obama now has an entire new community of voters who should move  like “Chain lighting” to abolish the embargo.

Cancer patients all over America, the world; should know that in Cuba there is a possible cure for cancer.  At the very least in Cuba, a cancer patient might have a viable new option.  I could personally hold a grudge towards Cuba or Pro-embargo enthusiast given my mother and  her brother (my uncle) have both died of Cancer.  One in Cuba, without the treatment of the privileged and mom in America, without the treatment of the privileged.

With that said, the one thing that is certain, to get the treatment for Cancer in Cuba, it will take the same “product” as in the U.S.; it will take you lots of money.

Good luck and God Bless everyone who may need and actually get the opportunity to use this new Cancer treatment in Cuba.  I suspect many pro-embargo against Cuba cancer patients will soon want to abolish the embargo. (Och!)

 

 

START ARTICLE

 

Cuba approves, makes available lung cancer vaccine

Tue Jun 24, 2008 8:37pm BST

 By Jeff Franks

http://uk.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUKN2435519120080624?sp=true

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban scientists said on Tuesday the first vaccine to extend lives of lung cancer patients has been approved by Cuban authorities for use and is available in the island’s hospitals.

The drug, CimaVax EGF, has been shown to increase survival rates on average four to five months and much longer in some patients, they said in a news conference at Cuba’s Center of Molecular Immunology.

In contrast to chemotherapy, the traditional treatment for lung cancer, they said CimaVax EGF has few side effects because it is a modified protein that attacks only cancer cells. They said it was the first lung cancer vaccine to be approved anywhere in the world, although there are others currently being tested.

“It’s the first vaccine for lung cancer registered in the world,” said Gisela Gonzalez, who headed the development of the vaccine, begun in 1992.

The drug is in various stages of clinical trials in a number of other countries and is most likely to be approved next in Peru, where it could be publicly available by year’s end, Gonzalez said.

She said several private companies had been licensed to market the vaccine, but it will be produced in Cuba. Cost for the treatment had not yet been determined, Gonzalez said.

Other cancer vaccines under development elsewhere include one made by Antigenics Inc against melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, and another made by Avant Immunotherapeutics Inc and licensed by drug giant Pfizer Inc that attacks glioblastoma multiforme, the most common and deadly type of brain tumor.

FOREIGNERS WELCOME

Tania Crombet, director of clinical investigations at Havana’s molecular immunology center, said people from outside Cuba can come to the island for treatment.

 ”It’s possible to provide this vaccine to any patient, because it’s available in Cuba, it’s approved by the Cuban drug agency so we can market the vaccine in Cuba and we can receive patients from outside,” she said.

The exception would probably be Americans, she said, who are restricted from Cuba travel by the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba in place since 1962.

“Even though there is a new therapeutic tool approved in Cuba they probably wouldn’t be able to come to Cuba to receive it because of the embargo,” Crombet said. The drug has been approved for clinical trial in the United States, but its possible use there is at least two to three years away, Gonzalez said.

Cuba’s state-run biotechnology sector includes around 50 research and development centers and is considered one of the most advanced in the developing world.

END ARTICLEVisit Web: http://www.nlg.org/cuba and sign up for varied perspectives on Cuba policy.www.EveryThingCuba.com See 1400 free images of the real Cuba today.

One Reply

  1. Ex Boyfriend

    April 9, 2009 at 8:07 PM

    Not that I’m totally impressed, but this is a lot more than I expected when I stumpled upon a link on Delicious telling that the info here is quite decent. Thanks.

    Reply

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