Cuba restarts production of Fluticasone and Salbutamol

The BioCubaFarma group reported that, after nine months, it restarted production of the drugs Fluticasone and Salbutamol in the country, and blamed the US embargo for such interruption.

"The cause of the production interruption was that suddenly thesupplier standard of pharmaceutical gas denied us to continue supplying this raw material," explained Eduardo Martínez Díaz, president of the Cuban state company on Twitter.

According to their publication, these suppliers "did not even agree to sell us some quantities, so we could have another supplier" for the production of aerosols.

He added that they never responded directly to thegovernment about "the cause of the suspension of supply", but the regime learned that the production company transferred its headquarters to the United States.

Martínez stated that in this period BioCubaFarma had to buy the Salbutamol (finished product) from a European company at costs several times higher than what it costs to produce it in the country.

"Close to 4 million USD had to be paid," he said, adding that "in these months that the plant remained shut down, its workers were also affected."

On repeated occasions, the Cuban regime has blamed the embargo for the shortage of medicines on the island, which, although aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic, had had problems since previous years.

Last year BioCubaFarma confirmed that in the first half of 2022 there were shortages in Cuban pharmacies and hospitals.more than 140 products from the basic medication table, due to problems in acquiring raw materials and packaging.

The state company told the official press that an average of 142 products such as aerosols, cytostatics, antihypertensives, diuretics, anticoagulants and chlorosodium serums had been in short supply in Cuba for six months, but in reality the shortage of medicines has been dragging on since previous years. .

The Cuban company is responsible for producing and distributing 369 products from the basic list of medicines to the country's health system. However, its inefficiency is such that it cannot guarantee more than a third of them.