Cuba to Carry Out Clinical Trials of Foot Ulcer Drug in Europe

HAVANA TIMES — Cuba medical personnel will perform stage III clinical trials in a hundred hospitals in the European Union in 2013 as it evaluates Heberprot-P – a drug that has previously shown itself effective in treating diabetic foot ulcers, reported the Cuban News Agency.

“This will be the first time that Havana is carrying out this expensive phase of the investigation in developed nations,” said Ernesto Lopez, the business manager of the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in the Cuban capital. Hopes are that this year’s income for the medicine will reach $100 million for the country.

Heberprot-P has patents in over 40 countries and more than 70,000 patients have benefited from its effectiveness in preventing the need for lower limb amputations.

In Cuba the program is being conducted in 192 clinics and 43 hospitals, and efforts are being made to extend its use into primary health care facilities, reads the news note.