German company wants to purchase the antiviral drug Interferon alfa-2b
The German company Profumed Deutschland plans to purchase the antiviral drug Interferon alfa-2b in Cuba. Sputnik spoke with the company’s CEO, Georg Scheffer, about the prospects for collaboration between the two countries during the pandemic.
The businessman stated that his company – which is dedicated to the production of cellulose-based medical material – has collaborated with Cuba for more than three years. After the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Schaeffer understood that it was necessary “to do something to save human lives”, and that was the moment when he learned of the existence of this medicine.
“We understood that the development and production of other drugs or vaccines will be impossible in the near future,” said Scheffer, adding that his company is working to obtain permission to import the Cuban drug.
“We do not want the same thing that happened in Italy to be repeated in Germany, and the evolution of the situation in Italy shows us that we are right: now, experts from Cuba and China are working there,” he stressed.
Scheffer added that his company needs the support of companies that have permission to import Interferon alfa-2b, since in the EU the import of said drug is only authorized in Spain.
The German entrepreneur stressed that Cuba has always “had something to brag about” when it comes to medical research, and even exported drugs to the German Democratic Republic during the Cold War.
Cuban pharmaceutical companies BioCubaFarma and Labiofam, who collaborate with Scheffer’s company in addition to representatives of the German Chamber of Commerce, Lehr and Neubert, are ready to provide support to Profumed Deutschland, said the Sputnik interlocutor. Likewise, Cuba is ready to send its doctors to Germany or authorize the production of the drug in the European country.
But do the complications related to the importation of the drug into Germany have to do with US political sanctions
Scheffer expressed his hope that “the political interests of the United States and the commercial blockade of Cuba do not prevail over the problem of saving human lives.” The businessman, who stressed that the largest German pharmaceutical companies could only have a coronavirus vaccine to By the end of the year, he assumed that “the people who make decisions are supposedly not adequately informed of the Cuban drug” and that “the situation is about to change.”
Scheffer stressed that Cuba will be able to export Interferon alfa-2b without depriving its own population of the drug. “In addition, we have the opportunity to manufacture the drug in Germany.” “We also have good German researchers and doctors who will undoubtedly support us,” he concluded.
