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The recent investigation by CiberCuba into the relationship between the Cuban state company Neuronic S.A. and the Spanish company I.C. Neuronic S.L. has opened a little-explored window into one of the most significant economic structures of the Cuban regime: BioCubaFarma.
Beyond the discovery of a company linked to the state conglomerate operating from Zaragoza, the analyzed documentation reveals a broader reality: BioCubaFarma is not only the entity responsible for a significant portion of national pharmaceutical production but also a complex business network with an international presence, subsidiaries in several countries, and scientific alliances that extend from Europe to China.
The inevitable question arises: how does this growing international expansion fit with the deep health crisis that Cuba is experiencing?
An international platform built from Europe
Research shows that Neuronic S.A., a company integrated into BioCubaFarma and linked to the Center for Neuroscience of Cuba (CNEURO), currently exercises management control over I.C. Neuronic S.L., a company based in Zaragoza dedicated to the manufacturing and marketing of high-tech medical equipment.
However, the importance of the Spanish company goes far beyond the existence of a mere subsidiary abroad.
The consulted documentation indicates that the Zaragoza facility operates as an industrial and commercial platform from which technologies developed by Cuban scientific institutions are manufactured and distributed in accordance with European regulatory standards.
The company produces electroencephalographs, electromyographs, evoked potential systems, polysomnography equipment, and other specialized technologies used in the field of neuroscience.
This business architecture allows Neuronic S.A. to operate from within the territory of the European Union, manufacture under community regulations, and more easily access international markets. The approval of products under European standards also increases their commercial acceptance in regions where a company based exclusively in Cuba would face greater obstacles to compete.
The official Cuban narrative itself acknowledges this strategic role. EcuRed, the collaborative encyclopedia promoted by the regime, defines Neuronic as a Cuban company and maintains that, "despite producing from Europe," it remains a "national company."
The statement is revealing because it reflects the institutional perception of the Zaragoza plant: not as an independent entity, but as an international extension of the Cuban state biotechnology industry.
The external presence of Neuronic is not limited to Spain. The company maintains controversial operations in Mexico, has commercial presence in Colombia, and connections with scientific projects developed in collaboration with Chinese institutions, forming part of an internationalization strategy driven for decades by the Cuban biotechnology sector.
At the end of March, a report by Latinus revealed that the government of Claudia Sheinbaum awarded at least three contracts worth up to 227 million Mexican pesos (about 12 million dollars) to Neuronic Mexicana S.A. de C.V. in 2025 for the purchase of oncology medications. The contracts were awarded directly, without a bidding process or public tender.
Cuban science, state-owned enterprises, and alliances with China
The scientific structure associated with Neuronic offers another clue about the scope of the project.
The external advisory board of I.C. Neuronic S.L. includes researchers affiliated with the Center for Neuroscience of Cuba (CNEURO), the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), and joint research programs between Cuba and China.
Among them are the neuroscientist Mitchell Valdés Sosa, a distinguished member of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba; René Iván González Fernández, head of the Neuromodulation Group at CNEURO; as well as several specialists associated with Chinese-Cuban biotechnology initiatives.
The composition of this advisory body reinforces the idea that the Spanish company is part of a broader strategy for internationalizing scientific capabilities developed within the Cuban state system.
The very evolution of Neuronic points in this direction. In addition to its traditional activity in clinical neurophysiology, the company has expanded its areas of interest to include therapeutic peptides, advanced drug delivery systems, nanotechnology applied to health, and platforms related to next-generation vaccines.
The Other Reality: Epidemics, Scarcity, and Crisis in Hospitals
While BioCubaFarma strengthens its international presence, the health situation within Cuba continues to deteriorate.
In October 2025, the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) called on the government to declare a public health emergency due to the simultaneous spread of diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, and oropouche, highlighting the lack of medications, laboratory reagents, and hospital supplies.
The organization warned about entire neighborhoods affected by mosquito-borne diseases, hospitals lacking the capacity to meet demand, and a growing reliance on donations and shipments from abroad to access basic medications.
The reports align with BioCubaFarma's own statements regarding production interruptions and shortages of medications. In recent years, hundreds of essential products have been affected due to a lack of raw materials, financing, and industrial supplies.
The consequence has been visible to any Cuban: pharmacies running low on supplies, interrupted treatments, and an increasing reliance on the informal market to obtain essential medications.
Various independent reports have also indicated that the health crisis extends beyond just medications. The lack of hospital supplies, laboratory reagents, medical equipment, and specialized personnel has worsened the decline of a system that for decades was showcased as one of the regime's main international highlights.
Export or supply?
In that context, the OCDH questioned why the regime continues to export biotechnology products and medical services while the population faces increasing difficulties in accessing basic treatments.
The organization requested that the international production of companies like BioCubaFarma be primarily directed towards addressing internal needs and called for increased investment in healthcare infrastructure.
The existence of companies like Neuronic does not demonstrate any illegality nor imply that products manufactured abroad are directly responsible for the scarcity in Cuba.
However, it does raise an uncomfortable question for the authorities: if the country has scientific capacity, international business structures, and presence in foreign markets, why does the medication crisis continue to worsen?
The question becomes even more relevant when it is observed that the international expansion of BioCubaFarma does not appear to have stopped despite the deterioration of internal health indicators.
The precedent of GAESA
The debate takes on an additional dimension at a time when the United States has intensified its offensive against GAESA, the business conglomerate controlled by the Cuban military.
Washington justifies the sanctions against GAESA by arguing that it is a strategic economic structure that concentrates resources, controls key sectors of the economy, and helps sustain the Cuban regime.
As far as the limited public information available goes, it cannot be asserted that BioCubaFarma operates under the umbrella of GAESA, and there is no evidence indicating a direct subordination between the two conglomerates.
However, both share some relevant characteristics: they are large state structures, operate with limited financial transparency, control strategic assets, and engage in international commercial activities that generate opaque revenues for the State.
The Neuronic case thus reopens a question that has so far received little debate: if international scrutiny has focused on GAESA for its role within the regime's economic architecture, why do other strategic state conglomerates like BioCubaFarma remain relatively outside of that discussion?
The new elites of crisis-ridden Cuba
The discussion also coincides with the rise of Mayda Mauri Pérez to the presidency of BioCubaFarma.
Mauri Pérez was identified by CiberCuba in a study published in 2023 as the mother of the economist Alejandro Peñalver Mauri, founder of Cubamodela, one of the first small and medium-sized enterprises promoted by official media as an example of the so-called "new economic actors".
That research showed how certain business projects emerged in a context of close relationships with high-level state structures.
The coincidence does not constitute evidence of any irregularity, but it illustrates the emergence of new economic elites closely linked to strategic sectors of the Cuban state, at a time when a significant portion of the population is facing a sustained loss of purchasing power, inflation, shortages, and a deterioration of basic services.
Much more than a company in Spain
The story of Neuronic is not just about a factory in Zaragoza.
What it reveals is the existence of an international corporate architecture built around one of the country's major state-owned conglomerates. A structure capable of producing in Europe, exporting to half the world, collaborating with Chinese or European institutions and developing advanced technologies for international markets.
Meanwhile, millions of Cubans continue to face empty pharmacies, deteriorating hospitals, and increasing difficulties in accessing basic medications.
The contradiction between both realities raises an increasingly frequent question both within and outside the island: what are the true priorities of the economic structures of the regime that control the strategic sectors of Cuba, and to what extent do the benefits generated by their international businesses end up affecting the daily lives of the population.
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