wired | Cuba has for several years
had a promising therapeutic vaccine against lung cancer. The 55-year
trade embargo led by the US made sure that Cuba was mostly where it
stayed. Until—maybe—now.
The Obama administration has, of course, been trying to normalize
relations with the island nation. And last month, during New York Gov.
Andrew Cuomo’s visit to Havana, Roswell Park Cancer Institute finalized
an agreement with Cuba’s Center for Molecular Immunology to develop a
lung cancer vaccine and begin clinical trials in the US. Essentially, US
researchers will bring the Cimavax vaccine stateside and get on track
for approval by the Food and Drug Administration.
“The chance to evaluate a vaccine like this is a very exciting
prospect,” says Candace Johnson, CEO of Roswell Park. She’s excited,
most likely, because research on the vaccine so far shows that it has
low toxicity, and it’s relatively cheap to produce and store. The Center
for Molecular Immunology will give Roswell Park all of the
documentation (how it’s produced, toxicity data, results from past
trials) for an FDA drug application; Johnson says she hopes to get
approval for testing Cimavax within six to eight months, and to start
clinical trials in a year.
How did Cuba end up with a cutting edge immuno-oncology drug? Though
the country is justly famous for cigars, rum, and baseball, it also has
some of the best and most inventive biotech and medical research in the
world. That’s especially notable for a country where the average worker
earns $20 a month. Cuba spends a fraction of the money the US does on
healthcare per individual; yet the average Cuban has a life expectancy
on par with the average American. “They’ve had to do more with less,”
says Johnson, “so they’ve had to be even more innovative with how they
approach things. For over 40 years, they have had a preeminent
immunology community.”
Despite decades of economic sanctions, Fidel and Raul Castro made
biotechnology and medical research, particularly preventative medicine, a
priority. After the 1981 dengue fever outbreak struck nearly 350,000
Cubans, the government established the Biological Front, an effort to
focus research efforts by various agencies toward specific goals. Its
first major accomplishment was the successful (and unexpected)
production of interferon, a protein that plays a role in human immune
response. Since then, Cuban immunologists made several other vaccination
breakthroughs, including their own vaccines for meningitis B and
hepatitis B, and monoclonal antibodies for kidney transplants.
