Cuba will start this year clinical trials of a new pneumonia vaccine developed by country’s biotech industry, the official daily Granma reports.
The vaccine was a joint effort of Havana's Finlay Institute and the Center for Biomolecular Chemistry, Finlay Director Concepcion Campa told Granma.
Campa is participating in the 16th International Seminar of the Caribbean Medical Association, which began Wednesday in Havana and attended by 200 specialists from various countries.
Campa talked on the effect on national public health of the more than 10 vaccines manufactured on the island, a Xinhua report says.
She was the head of the scientific team that created the "first and only effective vaccine in the world against meningococcal group B" (vaccine VA-MENGOC-BC), as per the Cuban medical authorities.
The other vaccines produced by Cuba are one against hepatitis "B", the first therapeutic vaccine to prevent lung cancer, and a pentavalent against diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, hepatitis "B" and the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae type B.
Cuba's biotech industry is one of the top contributor of the country’s main revenue sources, marketing about 38 medications in 40 countries.
Official data suggest that in 2008, the industry made profits exceeding $350 million, which is 10 percent of the country's total annual exports.
--with inputs from IANS
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