The old "if I don't know it, it doesn't exist" trick?
Many of us had heard a LOT about this subject long, LONG ago. For you to attempt to launch an attack on me because YOU haven't heard of it, or claim you haven't, isn't an attractive way to solicit information, if you really wanted to know more, after all.
Where are the products of this research? This "alleged" research? Why not get off your ass and start doing your homework?
Here's an article posted here last January:
Cuba registers "world's first lung cancer vaccine" in Peru
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x47083~~~~~Cuba develops 'breakthrough' cancer drug
By Mary Murray, NBC News Havana Bureau Chief
http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2008/06/27/4376358-cuba-develops-breakthrough-cancer-drug~~~~~Cuba Ailing? Not Its Biomedical Industry
Tom Fawthrop
The Straits Times, 26 January 2004
MENTION faraway Cuba and most people think of a Caribbean island best known for Havana cigars, rum and the revolutionary exploits of Che Guevara. They probably don't associate it with cutting edge medical research.
~snip~
Cuba pulled off its first scientific coup with the discovery of a new vaccine for meningitis B in the late 1980s. The vaccine controlled epidemics at home, and obtained good results abroad especially in Argentina and Brazil.
Havana's Carlos J. Finlay Institute has entered into a deal that allows major drug multinational GlaxoSmithKline to license its discovery in order to facilitate the first entry of a Cuban medical product into the more lucrative Western market.
More:
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/cuba-ailing-not-its-biomedical-industry~~~~~Page last updated at 06:39 GMT, Thursday, 26 March 2009
Cuba's cancer drug breakthrough
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7964933.stm Cuba has registered in Peru what it claims is the world’s first lung cancer vaccine and is registering it in other South American countries.
The vaccine, called CIMAVAX-EGF, was first registered in 2008 in Cuba, where it was developed 15 years ago. More than a thousand Cuban patients were successfully treated by the vaccine, according to Gisela González, medical researcher from the Immunologic Molecular Center (CIM) in Havana.
Gonzalez describes CIMAVAX-EGF as derived from a protein produced by lung cancer. She said it is safe because patients who received the vaccine felt no side effects.
The vaccine prolongs a patient’s life after chemotherapy or radiotherapy by preventing cancer from returning.
More:
http://dev.allheadlinenews.com/briefs/articles/90030471?Cuba%20registering%20first%20lung%20cancer%20vaccine%20in%20South%20America~~~~~Americans Are Also Hurt by the U.S. Embargo of Cuba:
Medical Research, Clinical Trials, and Availability of
Cuban-Developed Drugs are Limited
July 6, 2001
This letter was accompanied by the Pugwash Issue Brief on Cuba and distributed to all members of the US House of Representatives.
Dear Colleague,
I would like to bring to your attention the June 2001 Issue Brief produced by the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, the 1995 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. This newsletter explores the effects of the U.S. embargo on US-Cuban medical cooperation. I especially encourage you to read the article by Dr. Kenneth R. Bridges, Director of the Joint Center for Sickle Cell and Thalassemic Disorders at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.
As you know, drugs and medical devices developed by Cuba are not available to Americans. This includes vaccines for heart disease, cancer, hepatitis-B and meningitis-B, although for the latter a special protocol is being negotiated because the drug is so needed and desired by the U.S. medical and pharmaceutical community. Common areas of research requiring clinical trials, such as sickle cell disease, are also denied from engaging in joint clinical trials. Cuba has also developed fetal monitoring equipment that is being used in Canada, the United Kingdom and twenty other countries, but not the United States.
While only lifting the embargo will make these drugs, medical devices and opportunities for joint research truly available for all Americans, H.R. 2138, the Bridges to the Cuban People Act of 2001, takes important steps forward. For example, it would allow the import into the United States of Cuban-originated medical devices and medicines that are not commercially available in the U.S. already.
I encourage you to read the articles in the attached newsletter, and I encourage you to contact the offices of Representatives Jose Serrano and Jim Leach to become a cosponsor of H.R. 2138.
Sincerely,
James P. McGovern
Member of Congress
http://www.pugwash.org/reports/pim/pim38.htm~~~~~HEALTH NEWS FROM CUBA
Stem Cell Transplant Saves Patient's Leg
A team of Cuban specialists successfully transplanted stem cells which regenerated tissue to save the leg of 72-year old José Ramirez Espino. Diagnosed with a critical circulation problem requiring the amputation of his leg, Ramirez Espino received injections of stem cells taken from his bone marrow and was evidencing positive regenerative progress just 72 hours after the operation. This was the first clinical application of stem cells for tissue regeneration in the western hemisphere, according to Dr. Porfirion Hernández, deputy director of the Hematology and Immunology Institute of the Ministry of Public Health.
Cutting edge and highly complex, auto transplants are just one of the therapeutic applications Cuban scientists have developed from stem cell research (also see the related article "Back-to-Back Cellular Cardiac Transplants," below). In Ramirez Espino's case, some 300 million stem cells were harvested from his bone marrow, processed, and then injected into his leg muscle in an effort to treat an atherosclerosis condition with such serious circulatory problems that amputation of the leg was recommended. This successful auto transplant of stem cells validates recent studies that stem cells are able to develop cells of different tissues including muscles and blood vessels.
Stem cell research, whereby a cloned blastocyst is developed into a tissue culture to form a stem cell line for investigative purposes and therapeutic applications, has been embroiled in the highly controversial debate regarding reproductive and human cloning. The process of reproductive cloning, however, differs significantly in that the cloned blastocyst is implanted in a female's uterus where it develops until birth. See the article below, " Academy of Sciences Bans Reproductive Cloning, Supports Stem Cell Research" for the international scientific community's stand on the controversy.
Back-to-Back Cellular Cardiac Transplants
A double victory for clinical applications of stem cell research was achieved when the Cellular Therapy group led by cardiovascular surgeon Doctor José Hidalgo Díaz of the Havana Cardiology Institute, successfully implanted stem cells into the hearts of two separate patients.
More:
http://www.medicc.org/publications/medicc_review/V/23/pages/healthnewsfromcuba.html~~~~~July 25, 2004
The Sunday Observer
Dengue control: Experts fly to Cuba -- A team of medical experts will soon fly to Cuba to study its methods, including the effectiveness of 'Bacillus thuringien' (BT) bacteria, used by Cuba in eradicating dengue mosquito menace, Health and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva told the 'Sunday Observer', yesterday.
July 24, 2004
People's Weekly World Newspaper
Cuba offers 'ray of light' in cancer battle -- For the first time a U.S. company signed an agreement with a Cuban firm to develop and test anti-cancer drugs. The U.S. government broke with its long-standing trade embargo and gave a green light to California-based CancerVax to enter into a deal with Havana’s Center for Molecular Immunology (CIMAB, SA).
July 15, 2004
Reuters
Cuba to Help Caribbean Fight AIDS -- Cuba offered on Thursday to build training centers for nurses to handle AIDS patients in Caribbean nations and provide antiretroviral drugs to fight the pandemic. Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque made the offer at a one-day meeting with counterparts from the Caribbean Community (Caricom).
July 05, 2004
The Dallas Morning News
Cuba Rules Scare Medical Students -- American medical students in Cuba have rushed back to the United States, missing their final exams, over fears that U.S. authorities will jail them, fine them thousands of dollars, or revoke their citizenship for studying medicine on the island. James Cason, the top U.S. diplomat in Cuba, said he wasn't aware the American students were cutting their educations short.
More:
http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/cuba/foodAndMeds/updates.html~~~~~Effective meningitis vaccine produced in Cuba
Source: Science
23 July 2004 | EN
In what is being hailed as a major breakthrough in biotechnology, Cuban researchers report that their synthetic vaccine against the 'Hib' bacterium is ready for clinical testing. The Hib — or Haemophilus influenzae type B — bacterium causes meningitis and kills some 600,000 children a year in developing countries.
The vaccine is based on synthetic chains of simple sugars, which mimic those found on the surface of the bacteria. The Cuban-Canadian team pushed ahead for more than a decade to produce it, despite US embargoes and daunting technical difficulties.
Cuba researchers are also making progress with synthetic vaccines for pneumonia, among other diseases, while three Cuban cancer vaccines were licensed for use in the United States last week.
More:
http://www.scidev.net/en/news/effective-meningitis-vaccine-produced-in-cuba.html~~~~~The Costs of the Embargo (Cuba)
by Margot Pepper
www.dollarsandsense.org/, March/April 2009
~snip~
Beyond the economic costs, the blockade has deprived U.S. citizens of Cuba's medical breakthroughs. Cuba has developed the first meningitis B vaccine; treatments for the eye disease retinitis pigmentosa; a preservative for un-refrigerated milk; and PPG, a cholesterol-reducing drug gobbled up by foreigners for its side effect: increased sexual potency. And last summer Cuba released CimaVax EGF, the first therapeutic vaccine for lung cancer. The drug triggers an immune response that extends life in lung cancer patients and can ease breathing and restore appetite.
More:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Cuba/Costs_Cuba_Embargo.html~~~~~Cuba Culture News and Information Cuban biotechnology working on diabetic ulcers
By Mary Murray | Producer | NBC News
~snip~
Cutting-edge medical research
It’s even luckier for Sobrino that he doesn’t work just anywhere. The 67-year old gardener tends the sprawling grounds at Havana’s Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), a 754,000 square-foot complex that forms the cutting edge of Cuba’s biotech industry, a priority for the Castro government since 1981.
Marking its 25th anniversary this year, the CIGB has produced an array of health care products for sale on the global pharmaceutical market including a “clot buster” for heart attack victims and a small yellow pill derived from sugarcane that lowers dangerous cholesterol and lipoproteins. In addition, the center claims to have produced the world’s only meningitis B vaccine.
Some U.S. officials have questioned the industry’s real purpose, alleging that it’s a façade for military research to manufacture biological weapons such as like anthrax and bubonic plague. Cuban scientists dismiss the charges, stating that their work is rooted in finding cures for many diseases.
CIGB’s 1,200 researchers are responsible for the lion’s share of Cuban medical discoveries. Mostly due to their efforts, the country has patents pending on some 150 new medicines and technologies that treat a range of diseases ��” from heart disease and different cancers to AIDS ��” and is marketing its products worldwide.
More:
http://havanajournal.com/culture/entry/cuban_biotechnology_working_on_diabetic_ulcers/~~~~~Cuban cancer drug undergoes rare U.S. trial
September 4, 2009 By John Dorschner
The drug nimotuzumab is designed to target cancer cells including those in rare and deadly types like glioma, the brain cancer that killed Sen. Ted Kennedy. A researcher at the University of Florida, where one trial is already in progress, calls the drug "exciting, interesting."
The hitch: Even if trials prove successful, nimotuzumab could not be sold in the United States because 20 percent of the company holding the license is owned by the Cuban government.
"We're in the business of developing drugs," said David G.P. Allan, chief of YM Biosciences, based in Canada. "We could care less about the political side."
YM Biosciences owns 80 percent of CIMYM, the company that has the rights to develop nimotuzumab in North America, Europe, Japan and other places. The other 20 percent is owned by the Center of Molecular Immunology, the biotech lab in Havana that developed the drug.
More:
http://www.physorg.com/news171277649.html~~~~~ Last Updated: Friday, 21 November, 2003, 08:29 GMT
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.
More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3284995.stmETC., ETC., ETC.