• Submitted by: lena campos
• Science and Technology
• 07 / 10 / 2012

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Cuba will begin clinical tests in the European Union of a locally-produced pharmaceutical to treat diabetic foot ulcers, a specialist announced in Havana.

This is the first time that Cuba reaches this stage of research (stage
III) in nations of the so-called First World, said the director of the
commercial department at the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center
Ernesto Lopez in statements to ACN.

The Havana-based scientific institution developed the one-of-its-kind
medication in joint work with the Institute of Angelology and Vascular
Surgery.

The specialist explained that the pharmaceutical will be tested in some
700 patients, in a hundred hospitals across the European Union. The test
is based on previous stage II clinical assays carried out at healthcare
centers in Spain.

According to experts, this will be the most significant diabetic foot
research study in the world, from the clinical and scientific
perspectives, with great expectations about its results.

The Cuban pharmaceutical, known as Heberprot-P, has become a leading
product for the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center, in terms of
sales which are expected to translate into more than 100 million dollars
this year.

Heberprot-P has been patented in over 40 countries with 17 sanitary
registrations allowing its use by health ministries of other countries.

More than 70 thousand patients in different nations have been benefitted
with the Cuban pharmaceutical, both through government programs and other
ways, such as the private market, said Ernesto Lopez.

In Cuba the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers is being administered in 192
healthcare centers and 43 hospitals with major efforts focusing on primary
health attention.

According to statistics from the United States 65 percent of patients
suffering from diabetic foot ulcers end up with the amputation of lower
limbs. The surgical procedure costs a US citizen from 60 to 70 thousand
dollars, with hospital services included, said the specialist.

Source ACN