Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 27 November 1998:
Vol. 282. no. 5394, pp. 1626 - 1628
DOI: 10.1126/science.282.5394.1626
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

News Focus

SCIENCE AND BUSINESS:
Cuba's Billion-Dollar Biotech Gamble

Jocelyn Kaiser

HAVANA, CUBA--Cuban President Fidel Castro is staking much of his nation's science resources on biotechnology and has poured over $1 billion in the past 8 years into a large biomedical campus. This grand capitalist experiment in this communist country shows tantalizing hints of succeeding: Cuban scientists have already developed a couple of dozen products, including monoclonal antibodies, streptokinase--a drug used to break up blood clots--and the world's only available vaccine against meningitis B, and under development are cancer vaccines and other compounds that would be considered cutting-edge in U.S. labs. But Cuba's fledgling industry faces major obstacles to competing with its rivals in developed countries, not least of which being the 38-year-long U.S. embargo (see sidebar).

Read the Full Text

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)