Eduardo Martinez explained to local and foreign press that these 22 medicines are part of 300 produced by Biocubafarma, which are the basic ones distributed to healthcare centers and pharmacies across the country. These efforts are now escalating in view of the epidemiological emergency this new coronavirus represents.

Accompanied by directors of pharmaceutical companies and researchers from several scientific centers, Martinez stated that there is no defined treatment for this new virus, but there are instead some previous experiences on drugs already used in other outbreaks, such as Interferon Alfa 2B, successfully applied in China against COVID-19, which has been created and produced by Cuba’s Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.

In this regard, Martinez said that Cuba has nowadays taken measures to prevent COVID-19 from spreading across the country, and without predicting the number of patients that could be infected, these drugs are available to thousands of people over three to six months, with specific plans to increase the number of drugs so as to meet Cuba´s needs and requests from various nations.

Despite the U.S. blockade, which prevents a stable production of these 300 medicines, Martinez stressed that the Cuban government is managing to acquire new resources, raw materials and spare parts to guarantee the production of antiviral drugs, antibiotics, cardiac dysrhythmia drugs, anesthetics, parenteral solutions and many others for fighting COVID-19.

‘We are focused on increasing drug coverage, organization of production systems and purchase of resources to timely have all medicines the national health system requires to fight this pandemic, as well as the development of new products,’ said Martinez.

rly/pll/mgt/crc