July 21, 2012 (TSR) – China and Russia will start clinical tests on the Cuban pharmaceutical known as Heberprot-P, used to treat diabetic foot ulcers. It is the only one of its type in the world capable of curing the ailment that otherwise could imply amputation
The director of the Havana-based Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center, Luis Herrera, told Granma newspaper that the decision by China and Russia, prior to registering and approving of the medication, proves the good acceptance and high effectiveness of the product, which has prevented thousands of lower limb amputations on diabetic patients.
The clinical test will also be carried out in a hundred European hospitals, which makes it possible for Cuban scientists to carry out the phase III tests on the pharmaceutical in the first world and for the first time.The Ecuadoran Health Ministry and the Cuban Heber Biotech Company agreed last month in Quito the sale of some 9 000 doses of the medication amounting to 3 275 000 dollars as trial for 500 Ecuadorians, signed by Jorge Rodriguez Cuba´s Ambassador to that South American nation and Jose Maria Borja, Under Secretary of the local Foreign Ministry for Latin America and the Caribbean. It will be applied in Ecuador after concluding the trial stage carried out with doses donated by the island.During the signing ceremony, Jorge Mayo, representative of Biotech characterized the product as the son of Cuban science which, he said has saved the inferior extremities of thousands of diabetic patients in the world with a 90 percent effectiveness, and has already been presented in 25 countries for its registry and has been patented in 14 nations of the European Union, Asia and Latin America, in addition to the US.Francisco Vallejo, Under Secretary of Ecuador´s Health Ministry highlighted the importance of broadening its bilateral ties with Cuba and the nations of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA).
He believes that the document signed is only one part of what can be achieved in favor of the health of the Ecuadoran people.
The Cuban Heber Biotech company has, in addition to Heberprot-P, other leading products like Interferon and the Pentavalente vaccine that immunizes infants against five diseases with only one dose.
Heberprot-P is being administered in over 200 Cuban healthcare institutions as well as in other countries, such as Algeria, Vietnam, Angola, Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, said the scientist.
According to Doctor Herrera, the product was registered in Cuba in 2006, over 70 000 patients have been treated with the Cuban pharmaceutical, which has been patented in more than 40 countries, and used under 17 different sanitary permits by countries interested in its administration.
