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• Business and Economy
• Health and Medicine
• Science and Technology
• 05 / 12 / 2007

Victor Maqueda, an auditor for the World Health Organization (WHO), spoke to Granma while in Havana attending the Fourth International Workshop on Aseptic Processing in the Biopharmaceutical Industry.

"Despite the difficulties related to infrastructure and access to certain specific materials, the Cuban biopharmaceutical industry is today one of the most internationally recognized thanks to the sustained development of new products of a high degree of added value, and the security achieved in obtaining them."

Maqueda also praised the high degree of training of the Cuban professionals working in this industry, allowing them to manage complex technologies and obtain excellent results, exemplified by the development of the Hepatitis B vaccine and of proteins used in the treatment of lung cancer and other neoplasias.

Maqueda also spoke about the importance of the WHO certification awarded to three Cuban scientific facilities (CIGB, Biocen and CENPALAB) that are involved in the production and industrial output of the Hepatitis B vaccine. The WHO official pointed out that this certification will allow the product to be used by the United Nations in its international vaccination programs and places Cuba among the small group of highly industrialized nations that have pharmaceuticals certified for that purpose.

Source: Granma