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posted by CoolHand on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:43PM   Printer-friendly
from the positive-effects-of-the-blockade dept.

The Center for American Progress reports

During the 55-year, United States-led trade embargo, the Cuban government used what little resources it had to spur innovation in preventative medicine. Now, with the newly normalized relationship between the U.S. and the small Caribbean nation, American researchers want to seize an opportunity to expand access to Cuba's medical investments.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) recently visited Havana to broker a deal between between cancer researchers in his state and Cuban officials, who have created a potentially promising therapeutic vaccine against lung cancer that is headed to the United States for clinical trials.

The Cuban Ministry of Health made the vaccine, named CimaVax, available to the public in 2011 after researchers at Cuba's Center for Molecular Immunology tweaked the formula for 25 years. At a dollar per shot, the government has been able to protect Cubans against what has become the fourth-leading cause of death in the country by attacking proteins that cause cancerous tumors to grow.

CimaVax slows the growth of cancerous cells by stimulating the body's immune response and spurring the creation of antibodies that stunt the development of tumors. While the vaccine doesn't totally cure the lung cancer, it extends life expectancy by four to six months and reduces symptoms like coughing and breathlessness, as seen in clinical trials conducted in 2008.

[...]Japan and some European countries have launched trial studies of their own to explore Cimavax's potential.

[...]Since the launch of Rural Medical Service in the 1960s and the subsequent revitalization of health care networks for poor Cubans, the focus on prevention, rather than treatment, has helped the island nation keep its health care costs in check. Annual health care costs average about $300 per person--more than 20 times less than that of American patients.

TechDirt notes

Cuban scientists have come up with their own vaccines for meningitis B and hepatitis B, and monoclonal antibodies for kidney transplants. That suggests the success of the "do more with less" approach isn't just a one-off, but can be applied consistently to deliver results.

 
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by MrGuy on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:57PM

    by MrGuy (1007) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:57PM (#185715)

    when the focus of your healthcare system is health and not profit.

    There's a good reason major western companies wouldn't come up many of these drugs. Vaccines aren't profitable. You sell one dose once, and then you never sell it again.

    Compare it to something like Lipitor, where you take one pill a day for life. It's many orders of magnitude more profitable to find another Lipitor-like "take one pill a day to not die of your condition forever" control medication compared to a "take this pill once to not die of your condition ever" cure, even though it's obviously better to cure or prevent diseases than treat them. It's the same reason why Big Pharma isn't super interested in new antibiotics (where by design you take a dozen or so and then you're cured...)

    Prevention isn't profitable. Mitigation and control are.

    The real lesson from Cuba is that, freed from the motivation of trying to make the most profit by a western embargo, medical researchers whose sole focus was on finding the best ways to improve health came up with different medications that are more effective at improving overall public health than the ones developed by profit-motivated companies.

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  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday May 20 2015, @09:13PM

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Wednesday May 20 2015, @09:13PM (#185727) Homepage Journal

    the government provides healthcare until you are 18 years old; after that you are on your own. But the youngfolk are given everything they need to stay healthy as adults.

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @11:50PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @11:50PM (#185799)

    reason why Big Pharma isn't super interested in new antibiotics

    The antibiotic field is saturated with cheap drugs that are incredibly effective and well tested. Nobody would pay more for a new antibiotic unless they absolutely have to due to drug resistance so there is not much money in this field.
    It is about money not about cures.