Cuba and Russia advance in biopharmaceutical cooperation

Cuba and Russia are advancing in cooperation in the biopharmaceutical sphere to produce a portfolio of innovative medicines, according to the director of the Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Kiril Dmitriev.

Dmitriev explained that the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum has been the space to announce several of the agreements signed by the RDIF and a consortium made up of the Cuban biotechnology company BioCubaFarma and Russian pharmaceutical companies for the development and production of drugs age-related and against oncological diseases.

He also announced that the volume of investments in the initial phase will amount to 11.3 million dollars, with the possibility of further increasing up to 113 million dollars.

Likewise, he said that BioCubaFarma currently carries out a complete cycle of development, production and sale of biotechnological and pharmaceutical products that covers a significant number of countries.

The RDIF director highlighted that the Cuban company has a series of international agreements for the production of monoclonal antibodies and therapeutic vaccines against cancer, recombinant proteins and others. And in Russia, it has registered several companies that develop drugs for the treatment of Parkinson's and oncological diseases.

The director of the Fund also argued that they are working to attract the best pharmaceutical manufacturers in the world to the Russian market in order to localize research and production of medicines, substitute imports, and create their own production base.

Furthermore, BioCubaFarma has agreements for the development of innovative products with the main Russian scientific institutes and Academy of Sciences.