US biotech firm seeks US license to buy Cuban anti-cancer vaccine

GRANMA INTERNATIONAL
Havana. December 2, 2003

U.S. biotechnology company interested in Cuban cancer
vaccine

The CancerVax biotechnology company of San Diego,
California has asked the U.S. government for a permit to
acquire a Cuban anti-cancer vaccine.

According to Notimex The San Diego Union Tribune daily
reported that the company has presented a letter of intent
to the U.S. Department of Trade to acquire the
pharmaceutical from the Cuban Molecular Immunology Center
(CIM), where it is manufactured.

It is the Theracim h-R3 (trade name Cima-her) monoclonal
antibody, registered on the island for the treatment of
advanced brain and neck tumors in combination with
radiotherapy, which has obtained remission in more than 60%
of patients.

The Mexican news agency informs that the medicament was
researched in Cuba with funding from the YM Bioscience
Company of Toronto, but that enterprise suspended the
project. Thus CancerVax is proposing to take on the cost of
the research, acquiring the product through a trilateral
agreement with the Canadian company and paying the Cuban
government via items whose dispatch would have to be
authorized by Washington.

Normando Iznaga, head of the CIM Business Development team,
informed the press at the Havana 2003 Biotechnology
Conference that a signed agreement does not yet exist, but
"there are good possibilities given that it concerns the
subject of cancer. which goes beyond any national or
political commitment," ANSA notes.

However, CancerVax informed Reuters that there is no
certainty that it will be granted a license. A definitive
agreement for the purchase of the anti-cancer vaccine
depends on its authorization by the U.S. government plus a
license from the Treasury Department, which imposes trade
sanctions on the island.

John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Economic Exchange
Council, told The San Diego Union Tribune that various
(biomedic) research companies and hospitals are exploring
potential permits for exchange agreements with Cuba.

He added that the Cubans are surprisingly productive in the
biotechnology sector and mentioned certain U.S. enterprises
that are interested in the lotion that detains skin
depigmentation (Melagenina Plus) and a sugarcane by-product
that reduces cholesterol levels (PPG), among others.

Iznaga noted that more than 100 patients have been treated
with Cima-her with very positive results, including Gladys
Marín, the leader of the Chilean Communist Party, who is
currently a patient in Cuba after an operation in Sweden
for a malignant brain tumor.

According to Notimex, since the United States imposed the
blockade on the island more than 40 years ago, it has only
granted one license in 1999 when the British pharmaceutical
company GlaxoSmithKline persuaded Washington to exempt the
VA-MENGOC-BC anti-meningitis vaccine discovered by Cuba,
which is the only effective prevention against the groups B
and C of the disease, which kills a large number of
children throughout the world.