Cuba registers "world's first lung cancer vaccine" in Peru

[rabs]

This appears to be a major breakthrough in cancer research and treatment --- and it is not making the MSM -- perhaps because Cuban scientists have developed it ???

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The CIMAVAX-EGF vaccine, developed in the Immunologic Molecular Center of Havana, Cuba, can be applied succesfully in patients suffering acute forms of lung cancer. (Photo: RadioRebelde.cu)




A therapeutic vaccine against acute lung cancer developed in Cuba has been registered in Peru, reported the Spanish news agency EFE.

The vaccine, named CIMAVAX-EGF, is the “world’s first lung cancer vaccine,” according to Gisela González, medical researcher from the Immunologic Molecular Center (CIM) in Havana.

Gonzáles said it has been successfully applied in more than a thousand patients in Cuba.

The vaccine is currently registered in Peru and in process of being registered in COLOMBIA, BRAZIL, ECUADOR, PARAGUAY AND ARGENTINA, said González. The specialist said the product will soon undergo a probation phase in CHINA. (caps mine)
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“It has been confirmed that it is a secure vaccine without severe secondary effects and it prolongs a patient’s life with quality standards,” said González to Trabajadores, an official Cuban weekly that published a feature about the vaccine, said EFE.

http://www.livinginperu.com/news-13850-health-cuba-registers-worlds-first-lung-cancer-vaccine-peru




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González said that after its success in Cuba, CIMAVAX-EGF is making progress in other countries and it is being evaluated to be used in therapies against tumor in prostate, uterus and breast cancer.

[Judi Lynn]

1. This is impressive, isn't it? Anyone who has been aware of any part of Cuban medical research

could have expected an exciting breakthrough like this.

They've been known for years and years for their own advances against Hepatitus C (??? Can't remember which one it was) and eye diseases and throat cancer and a host of other problems I forgot long ago. I have the medical info. links on another computer I didn't transfer and can't access easily.

You probably might remember a California drug maker was working on a project connected to Cuban research around 2001 or 2000. We discussed it at the CNN US/Cuba policy message board.

Also we read material from the U.K. on their trips to study and evaluate Cuban research. Extremely positive reactions.

Registered in 6 countries, with China on the horizon, "world’s first lung cancer vaccine." So interested in finding out more about this. Clearly we are being kept TOTALLY in the dark here. You are SOOOOOO right. The U.S. will be the last country on earth to acknowledge their accomplishments in this field, although they are praised world-wide already!

Recommending, and THANK YOU.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Silly me. It wasn't Hepetitis, it was meningitis.

I tried to find the right answer because I wasn't satisfied with what I wrote. Here's an interesting article from the BBC News:

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. Education, science and health, the cornerstone of the 1959 revolution, are closely linked together in Cuba's development of an advanced medical sector.

~snip~
Vaccines

In the 1980s millions of dollars were invested by the Cuban government in developing modern vaccines laboratories and a massive centre for biotechnology. Since the end of Soviet aid in 1989, and the acute economic crisis of the 1990s, Cuba has seen the excellence of its medico-scientific institutions as a strategic resource for developing new medical products for export.

The country's first breakthrough in medical research was its discovery and patenting of meningitis-B vaccine in late 1980s. It has been successfully exported to cope with epidemics in South American countries including Brazil and Argentina. The vaccine has now been licensed to GlaxoSmithKline who will now market it in Europe and it is hoped eventually in the USA.

Political obstacles

Cuba's attempts to gain a foothold in the international pharmaceutical market have come up against formidable obstacles, both commercial and political, with the stringent US trade embargo. This socialist island's strength has been in the quality of its products, not in marketing and export know-how. During the last few years the biggest earner for Cuban biotechnology has been the export of Hepatitis-B vaccine to more than 30 countries. The Cuban vaccine is widely regarded as the more effective than Belgian and US-produced vaccines.

Cuba maybe judged poor by material living standards, but its medical sector is a strong demonstration of its wealth in human resources. Joint ventures with China, India and Russia have been established to set up vaccine plants in their countries based on a transfer of Cuban technology.

~snip~
Cuba's cutting-edge products for neck and breast cancer have caused the biggest stir in the world of biotechnology. They have just been licensed to a German pharmaceutical company, with rights to develop the drug TheraCIM h-R3 for the European market. Analysts say so far the commercial rewards for Cuba's many medical innovations have only been a fraction of their potential. But if TheraCim h-R3 receives regulatory approval, it could become a standard cancer treatment in Europe in four or five years, with estimated sales of around $3bn a year.

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/business/3284995.stm

[naaman fletcher]

3. "and it is not making the MSM "

http://articles.cnn.com/2009-02-19/health/cuba.cancer.vaccine_1_lung-cancer-therapeutic-vaccine-initial-tumor?_s=PM:HEALTH

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/jun/26/cancer.cuba


The CNN one is from 2009. The Guardian one is from 2008.