ECONOMY-CUBA: Pharmaceutical Industry Poised to Boost Production

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Jun 10 2002 (IPS) - Cuba’s pharmaceutical industry is stepping up production to meet domestic demand for medicines and become self-sustainable through exports.

The pharmaceutical industry “has the capacity not only to satisfy internal demand, but to export as well,” Minister of Basic Industry Marcos Portal told IPS.

Meeting the needs of the internal market is one of the priorities of a restructuring process that began in late 2000, aimed at bolstering the production of pharmaceuticals.

As part of that process, the Medical-Pharmaceutical Industry (IMEFA) was put under the jurisdiction of the Chemical Union, in the Ministry of Basic Industry, which is seen as having greater experience in manufacturing than the Health Ministry, to which it previously answered.

The Chemical-Pharmaceutical Business Group (QUIMEFA) was also created, to oversee the sector through the Union of Pharmaceutical Industry Companies, made up of 19 firms that have a total of 41 factories as well as a research and development centre.

The industry employs around 7,000 people, including 1,800 professionals and technicians.

This year, the Ministry of Basic Industry plans to fully implement a programme dubbed the “No Medicine Shortages Plan’, to ensure that demand for 809 key medicines, 540 of which are produced locally, is covered.

“Our industry is producing around 480 pharmaceuticals, and around 60 more will begin to be produced” this month, said Portal, who hopes that will normalise the situation on the internal market, in order to ensure supplies and curb the black market.

Cuba imports around 90 percent of the raw materials used to produce pharmaceuticals and related products. It also imports over 260 different medicines.

Experts say the production of pharmaceuticals dropped 15 percent between 1989 and 1993. However, the rest of Cuba’s industries saw an even sharper contraction during the worst period of the economic crisis that broke out in the early 1990s, after the breakup of the Soviet Union and the disappearance of the east European socialist bloc.

However, the shortage of medicine was as keenly felt as the shortage of food, and authorities tried to ease the situation with specific measures, including a system of controlled distribution, in order to guarantee supplies for patients with chronic conditions.

But the shortages in the pharmacies have continued, and there are still products that can only be found on the black market.

“Finding duralgina and ibuprofen (painkillers) or meprobamate (a sedative and muscle relaxant), to mention the drugs in highest demand, tends to be very, very difficult,” complained María Caridad Martínez, 50, a resident of the Old City in Havana.

Martínez said the lack of medicines, along with limited incomes, are the main factors fuelling the black market. “Many complete their incomes selling medicine that they steal” from the public enterprises where they work, she added.

Minister Portal said the solution to that problem was ensuring an adequate supply of medicines on pharmacy shelves. “The black market will lose the opportunity to turn a profit at the expense of the people when we conclude our programme,” he stated.

Portal said the parallel market not only thrives on the medicines taken from factories and warehouses, but also from products sent from family members living in the United States and other countries.

The inputs used by the pharmaceutical industry are financed by the revenues from exports by the sugar, nickel and other industries.

“Without counting the extraordinary contribution by the biotechnology industry that makes it possible for Cuba to produce medicine due to the revenues it generates, we want the pharmaceutical industry to become self-sustainable, by increasing its exports,” he said.

According to official figures, Cuba exported more than 33 million dollars worth of medicinal and pharmaceutical products in 2000, while it imported 100 million dollars worth of medicines and inputs.

Haemoderivatives, steroids and anaesthetics are among the main exports of the pharmaceutical industry, which may also begin exporting anti-AIDS drugs and new “green medicine” products.

Portal defended the high quality and low cost of Cuba’s pharmaceutical products, although he noted that competing for market share with other countries is not easy due to the high level of concentration and monopolisation in the sector.

Cuba’s pharmaceutical industry is also open to foreign investment, although no joint ventures are operating yet in the sector.

According to reports that have not been confirmed by the socialist government of Fidel Castro, some 15 business ventures are currently being negotiated, involving technology transfer and joint ventures abroad.

“We are always ready to consider any initiative involving the pharmaceutical industry. Our products are of high quality and lower cost than those of most developing countries,” said Portal.

Cuba’s health system is also supplied by a group of R&D institutions that also produce and market medicines, known as the “Scientific Pole”, which is under the jurisdiction of the Council of State.

That strategic scientific research group brings in revenues of around 150 million dollars a year, and is expected to grow at an annual rate of 15 percent over the next few years.

The “Scientific Pole” produces over 20 pharmaceutical products and vaccines, as well as advanced diagnostic systems and products that are exported to more than 40 countries, while researchers are busy working on coming up with vaccines for HIV (the AIDS virus), cancer, dengue and other killer diseases.