As a poor country, Cuba owns technology to the United States

" An American president came to Havana in Cuba on his First Air Force. In my dreams and nightmares, we could never have imagined that we would see anything like that " - Famous writer Leonardo Padura of Cuba writes on his blog.

It is true, but few people know that in Cuba there is such a brilliant medical technology that Americans must care.

Cuba has successfully developed and owns a vaccine against lung cancer . Given the name Cimavax , it can turn end-stage lung cancer into a manageable chronic disease.

European, Japanese and even US scientists are very interested in this Cuban technology. Right now, President Obama is in Havana during a historic visit to the country that the US has embargoed for 55 years. So let us reassess once again the future of Cimavax vaccine, if the relationship between Cuba and the United States is quickly heated up in the near future.

Cimavax, a lung cancer vaccine developed by Cuba.

Since the end of last year, the Obama administration has expressed a willingness to normalize relations with Cuba. In 2015, New York governor Andrew Cuomo visited Havana. The trip ended with a remarkable agreement: The Roswell Park Cancer Institute, USA agreed with Cuba's Molecular Immunization Center, allowing clinical trials of Cuban lung cancer vaccine developed in the United States. It will also be considered for licensing by the US Food and Drug Administration.

" The opportunity for this vaccine is considered a beautiful prospect ," said Candace Johnson, CEO of Roswell Park Institute. She is looking forward to this result, because Cuban research has so far shown it to be a low and relatively cheap toxic drug for mass production.

Under the agreement, Cuba's Molecular Immunization Center will provide Roswell Park with all documents about the vaccine: how it is produced, toxicity, test results in Cuba . Then , Johnson will push for a license to test Cimavax vaccine in the US within 8 months. Licensed, clinical trials will be conducted shortly after several months.

Cuba's research seems impressive, but how can this embargoed country for 55 years do it?

Embargoed, Cuba still has a developed biotechnology.

In fact, cigars, rum and baseball have made many people forget that Cuba is one of the most innovative and developed biotech countries in the world. An encouraging thing, where people only receive an average of 20 USD per month, Cuba spends an extremely small budget compared to the United States in health care. However, the average life expectancy of Cubans is equivalent to that of Americans.

" They have done more in a tight budget ," Johnson said. " So Cuba must be very creative in the way they approach things. Over the past 40 years, they have built a scientific community in the field of very good immunity ."

For decades, under economic sanctions, but policies to prioritize biotechnology and medical research, especially in the areas of prevention and immunity, have been maintained by both leaders Fidel and Raul Castro. show.

A big kick came in 1981, when a widespread dengue epidemic occurred in Cuba, affecting nearly 350,000 people. Their government has established a Biological Front, linking research of various agencies towards specific objectives.

Their first success was the successful production of a protein called interferon , which plays an important role in the human immune system . Since then, Cuba's immunology industry has caused a great buzz. Their scientists continually make many breakthroughs, including from domestic vaccines for meningitis, hepatitis B to antibodies used in kidney transplantation and now cancer vaccines. lung.

Cuba is famous for cigars, followed by people's risk of lung cancer.

Again, Cuba is a country famous for cigars. Too much smoking causes lung cancer to become the fourth leading cause of death in Cuba. This alarming situation happened 25 years ago. At that time, their molecular immune center began to study Cimavax vaccine.

Until 2011, the Cuban Ministry of Health agreed to allow the use of Cimavax on humans. Patients receive free treatment, while each dose of Cimavax costs only $ 1 of the government. That was the result after a 2-stage trial in 2008. Lung cancer patients treated with the vaccine lived on average for longer than 4-6 months of normal patients. At that time, both Japan and Europe began to pay attention to the potential of Cimavax technology.

In essence, Cimavax is not an anticancer drug before it happens, as people often define vaccines. In fact, the vaccine is an immune system stimulant. Therefore, Cimavax is not the same as normal drugs, they do not directly attack tumors .

Instead, Cimavax promotes a patient's body to produce antibodies against an epidermal growth hormone. This hormone promotes cell growth, but on the other hand causes the tumor to grow and lose control. Controlling this hormone, Cimavax can inhibit the development of lung cancer , limit its metastasis and turn cancer into a chronic disease for treatment.

Cimavax does not directly attack tumors but enhances the body's immune system.

This vaccine and how it works attracted the attention of American and European researchers. Epidermal growth factor plays an important role, not only for lung cancer but also for breast, prostate, colon, and pancreatic cancers. Kelvin Lee, a researcher from the Roswell Park Institute, said, " All these cancers are potential targets for this vaccine ." It seems that because of financial constraints, Cuba has been unable to test it on other cancers, in addition to lung cancer coming from cigars every day.

Talking about the potential in the future, Cimavax has never before such a great opportunity if tested and developed in the United States. Perhaps that will certainly happen when the relationship between the two countries is warming up.

In the past, President Obama used his rights to loosen some restrictions on medical equipment and research with Cuba. Right now, he is also in Havana during a historic visit, promising a decision to lift sanctions.

If that really happens, only in the short time to come, the scientific research of the two countries will immediately be connected. Johnson said the United States could teach Cuba more about how to do business. Meanwhile, the creativity that Cuba accumulated during the decades of embargo could be passed on to their colleagues in the United States.