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 up 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 out of Zaragoza, the analyzed documentation reveals a broader reality: BioCubaFarma is not only the body responsible for much of the national pharmaceutical production but also a complex business network with an international presence, subsidiaries in various countries, and scientific alliances that extend from Europe to China.
The inevitable question that arises is: how does this growing international expansion fit with the deep health crisis that Cuba is facing?
An international platform built from Europe
Research shows that Neuronic S.A., a company integrated into BioCubaFarma and linked to the Center for Neurosciences of Cuba (CNEURO), currently exercises management control of I.C. Neuronic S.L., a company based in Zaragoza dedicated to the manufacture and marketing of high-tech medical equipment.
However, the significance 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 compliance 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 enterprise architecture allows Neuronic S.A. to operate from within the territory of the European Union, manufacture under community regulations, and gain easier access to international markets. The certification of products under European standards also increases their commercial acceptance in regions where a company solely based in Cuba would face greater challenges 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 asserts that, "despite producing from Europe," it remains a "national company."
The statement is revealing as 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, a commercial presence in Colombia, and connections with scientific projects developed jointly with Chinese institutions, as part of a strategy of internationalization promoted for decades by the Cuban biotechnology sector.
At the end of March, a report from 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. for the purchase of oncology medications in 2025. The contracts were awarded directly, without a competition or public bidding.
Cuban science, state-owned enterprises, and alliances with China
The scientific structure associated with Neuronic provides another insight into the scope of the project.
The external advisory board of I.C. Neuronic S.L. includes researchers connected to the Center for Neurosciences 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 academic 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 Sino-Cuban biotechnology initiatives.
The composition of this advisory body reinforces the notion that the Spanish company is part of a broader strategy for the internationalization of scientific capabilities developed within the Cuban state system.
The very evolution of Neuronic points in that direction. In addition to its traditional activities 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, Shortages, and Hospitals in Crisis
While BioCubaFarma strengthens its international presence, the health situation within Cuba continues to deteriorate.
In October 2025, the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) demanded that the government declare a 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 dependence on donations and shipments from abroad to access basic medications.
The complaints align with BioCubaFarma's own reports on production interruptions and shortages of medications. Over the past few years, hundreds of essential products have been affected due to a lack of raw materials, financing, and industrial supplies.
The consequence has been apparent to every Cuban: empty pharmacies, interrupted treatments, and an increasing reliance on the informal market to obtain essential medications.
Various independent reports have also indicated that the health crisis is not limited to medications. The lack of hospital supplies, laboratory reagents, medical equipment, and specialized personnel has exacerbated the deterioration of a system that for decades was touted as one of the regime's main international showcases.
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 focused on meeting 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 shortage 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 more relevant when it is observed that the international expansion of BioCubaFarma does not appear to have halted 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, they both share some relevant characteristics: they are large state structures, operate with low 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 absent from that discussion?
The new elites of crisis-stricken 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 within a context of close relationships with high-level state structures.
The coincidence does not constitute proof 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 much of the population is facing a sustained loss of purchasing power, inflation, shortages, and 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 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, dilapidated hospitals, and increasing difficulties in accessing basic medications.
The contradiction between both realities fuels an increasingly common question both inside 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 profits generated by their international businesses end up affecting the daily lives of the population.
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