BioCubaFarma restored the production of some priority medicines in high popular demand with coverage for two or three months, after the arrival of raw materials in the country, the newspaper reported this Monday.Granma.
In a tour this Sunday of the Novatec production companies, from the MedSol Laboratories Company, and the Center for Molecular Immunology (CIM), both belonging to BioCubaFarma, Deputy Prime Minister Jorge Luis Perdomo Di-Lella acknowledged that "What is being produced today does not resolve the demand for the year, but rather provides coverage for two and three months, due to the raw materials that are entering."
However, he announced that for this second half of the year the availability of raw materials is expected to stabilize:“In the coming weeks we are going to have a recovery in the pharmaceutical industry”, he promised.
Among the drugs that are being manufactured again on the island are enalapril 20 mg (antihypertensive), sertraline 50 mg (antidepressant), moxifloxacin 400 mg (antibiotic used in the Maternal and Child Program), loratadine 10 mg (antihistamine), clopidogrel 75 mg (antiplatelet used for cardiovascular conditions), and montelukast 5 mg (for the treatment of bronchial asthma and allergies).
The manufacturing of these medications is carried out by the MedSol Laboratories Company, which produces a total of 130 medications, 35% of the basic national production table, and is responsible for guaranteeing 77% of the drugs sold by medical card.
According to the general director of MedSol, Luis Armado Alarcón, the aforementioned drugs should reach the population between the end of this month of July and the beginning of August, after months of productive deficit that he blamed, in addition to the lack of raw materials. , to the US embargo.
“Sometimes it is said that we want to use the blockade as a justification and that is not the case. "Today we have an aerosol plant, in which Salbutamol and Fluticasone are produced, for which the usual supplier stopped supplying us with gas, and the country has had to import Salbutamol products to guarantee that patients have this drug," He said and assured that work is being done to stabilize production.
Other drugs that are being produced these days on the island and that are also exported are Recombinant Human Erythropoietin, a hormone to prevent or treat anemia in kidney patients, and the monoclonal antibody Nimotuzumab for the treatment of cancer.
The first is guaranteed for the 2022-2023 cycle and the second will cover demand until November of this year, according to statements by Dr. Eduardo Ojito Magaz, general director of the Center for Molecular Immunology, where they are manufactured.
“The national system has been affected by the lack of this antibody for cancer patients, so this campaign will guarantee the next two months of production”He specified about Nimotuzumab and added that the one the Center is producing is for the months of October and November, since production for August and September has already concluded.
Likewise, the Center produces the anti-covid-19 vaccines Soberana 02 and Soberana Plus, which, according to the president of BioCubaFarma, Dr. Eduardo Martínez Díaz, all the booster doses needed are guaranteed, including those of Abdala.
The CIM is also responsible for the manufacturing of the lung cancer vaccine Cimavax-EGF, although on this occasion, the state press did not offer details about its availability for the Public Health system.
Last Monday it emerged that Cuba had resumedproduction of the antibiotic Cephalexin, of high popular demand, after eight months without manufacturing it due to lack of raw materials and financing. The current coverage of the drug is barely guaranteed for between 60 and 75 percent of supply, according to statements by officials of the Cuban pharmaceutical industry.
“The situation we have today with medicines, both those manufactured by the biopharmaceutical industry and those imported, is very complex”, the president of BioCubaFarma then acknowledged, adding that “currently, more than 150 drugs produced by BioCubaFarma are missing, which are not in the network of pharmacies or hospitals.”
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