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The biopharmaceutical sector in Cuba has managed to take significant steps forward in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis. Darien García tells us about this below
The expert from the Cuba-EU II Experiences Exchange project, Darien García Díaz, shares with us the important advances that the programme is making in the Cuban biopharmaceutical sector in the current context of Covid-19. He also relates how the programme has had to adapt to new circumstances to continue its operation and joint cooperation.
Composed of more than 30 institutions, BioCubaFarma is the main business group in the Cuban biopharmaceutical sector. Its structure, which includes closed cycle centres, enables ideas to be generated leading to innovative products, their development, production, and marketing, it also promotes the training of young professionals through its academic programmes and close collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health and the Cuban educational system. The main priority for the products produced in its facilities is to supply the national networks of pharmacies and hospitals, and secondly, they constitute an important source of exports that, due to their quality, have contributed to gaining a well-deserved international reputation. Areas such as cancer, complications of diabetes, autoimmune diseases and infectious diseases are successfully addressed through its research programmes.
The need to properly evaluate the efficiency of these products in terms of their costs and therapeutic effects using pharmaco-economic tools led to the start of a successful collaboration relationship with the European Union, through the Experience Exchange Programme coordinated by FIIAPP and the Cuban National Economic Research Institute (INIE). More than 8 actions have and are being carried out with international experts in the field during the 2018-2020 period, with the Carlos III University in Madrid playing a fundamental role in their coordination, leading to the training of 21 Cuban specialists who have been involved in achieving important objectives for BioCubaFarma. The main results include the economic evaluation of Heberprot P for diabetic foot ulcers in Mexico, which allowed it to be accepted by the corresponding regulatory bodies; the economic evaluation of nimotuzumab for head and neck cancer; and cost studies on vaccination programmes for pneumococcus and rotavirus in Cuba.
In the midst of the current Covid-19 epidemic which has led to an international economic and health crisis, the identification of actions that will enable the accelerated implementation of programmes to combat the virus and adequate decision-making have become a priority for the Experience Exchange Programme and for BioCubaFarma. The international event “Virtual ISPOR 2020 HEOR: Advancing Evidence to Action” arose as a unique opportunity that is part of this strategy. The sessions included a plenary conference to investigate the results and economic aspects related to Covid-19, as well as topics covering the challenges for health policies, clinical decision-making and new designs for cost-effectiveness studies. Case studies were presented including the Singapore National Centre for Infectious Diseases and its Outpatient Screening and Capabilities Centre. In addition, the presentation discussed the strategies for detecting suspected cases during outbreaks and protocols for segregating patients with different risk levels to prevent cross-infection.
The virtual nature of the programme allowed the participation of a Cuban specialist as delegate and an exchange between top-level figures along with access to more than 60 hours of conferences that will be kept as reference material for the Cuban company and other interested international entities. Additionally, membership of ISPOR was organised for the participating Cuban specialist, which allows access to leading publications on the subject, additional virtual events and exchange networks in this discipline that will have a positive impact on BioCubaFarma.
The continuation of the actions from the Experience Exchange Programme with the European Union in the current international context, undoubtedly, represents an important cooperation action that will raise the scientific, economic and social standards of the Cuban biopharmaceutical company.
Darien García Díaz, a specialist from the BioCubaFarma Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology and counterpart in the Cuba-EU II Experience Exchange Programme.
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Nineteen Spaniards are contributing their faces and their stories to explain to citizens what the development aid lent by the European Union consists of.
Núria is a “Barcelonesa” and she lives in Angola. She is a face of cooperation. She collaborates with a local development project in this African country. It’s not the first time she’s worked as a volunteer, or in Angola or Africa. Mozambique and Mauritania were earlier destinations.
Now 39 years of age, she’s contributing her experience as an economist and social worker to local Angolan institutions. The purpose of this project, financed by the European Commission and managed by the FIIAPP, is to improve opportunities for economic development and access to basic social services for vulnerable rural families.
This year, Núria has been chosen as one of the faces of the “Nineteen Citizens Give Development Aid a Face” campaign as part of the “2015 European Year of Development” launched by the Representation of the European Commission and the Information Office of the European Parliament in Spain. The goal is to explain what Europe is doing in the area of cooperation through the experiences of these citizens. All of them are Spaniards.
Did you know that the EU is the largest donor to development aid?
The European Union and its Member States are the largest donors of development aid worldwide, and they fund and drive hundreds of programmes and initiatives aimed at improving living conditions for citizens. In 2013 they donated 56.5 billion euros to help countries all over the world fight poverty.
The “2015 European Year of Development” seeks to publicise this activity and also its results. “Our world. Our dignity. Our future” is its slogan, and the story of Núria and all the other faces of development aid are helping to spread the word about it in Europe and the rest of the world. #EYD2015#19Rostros
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In the week when the OECD is presenting its report on the economic progress of Latin America, we bring you the reality of Argentina thanks to EUROsociAL.
The European Union cooperation programme for Latin America, EUROsociAL, focuses its work on social cohesion and development in various Latin American countries. One of them is Argentina, where work is being done on several projects for access to justice and prevention of violence in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice.
Kids in the “Jóvenes con más y mejor trabajo” [Young People With More and Better Jobs] programme of the Access to Justice Centre of Santiago del Estero mounted a campaign against institutional violence. Among their actions, the mural created with the slogan of the campaign, “No me pongas la mano encima” [Don’t lay a hand on me], an “open-mike radio show” and a street performance stand out.
Street violence
The IDLO, the international organisation that supports justice, (with the collaboration of EUROsociAL), held a workshop in Santiago del Estero Province to train young people on how to create their own campaigns to raise awareness about rights, and there was almost no debate: “institutional violence”—and in particular the mistreatment young people experience at the hands of the police—would have to be at the centre of their actions.
According to the IDLO, in Argentina, kids going about their business on the streets know that being detained, chased and possibly arrested by a police patrol on its rounds is a real possibility.
In most cases, there is no real motive for this. The most habitual pretext is “having the face of a criminal” or “looking suspicious”—their appearance is what makes them suspicious. Wearing a track suit or a baseball cap is an aggravating factor. One minute you’re talking to your friends, and the next you’re up against the wall with your things scattered on the pavement and a pair of hands frisking you looking for weapons or drugs.
Since 2013, EUROsociAL has been consolidating various tools for access to justice policies oriented towards different vulnerable groups: besides the young protagonists of this story, it has championed migrant women’s right to justice in Costa Rica, women victims of violence in Honduras, women victims of human trafficking in Chile, the indigenous population in Peru, and African-descended young people in Brazil”.
