Editorial | Why not CARICOM-Cuba biotech partnership?

This month is the 48th anniversary of the move by Michael Manley, Forbes Burnham, Eric Williams and Errol Barrow to establish diplomatic relations with Fidel Castro’s Cuba. That decision by the leaders of Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados was marked on December 8 by a virtual summit between the heads of government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Expectedly, the coronavirus pandemic was high on their agenda.

The conference’s final statement declared CARICOM’s “will” to maintain its medical cooperation with Cuba and, in that regard, recognised Havana’s contribution to the region, especially with “its valuable human resources which were added to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic”.

The statement also noted the parties rejecting any attempt “to discredit, distort or disrupt Cuban medical assistance, an important aid to the region and to Caribbean healthcare system”, and asserted their agreement to “share our best experiences in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic and other epidemiological conditions that are common to the Caribbean, and assess the possible application of innovative Cuban biotech medicines in the prevention and treatment of this pandemic”.

For decades, Cuban doctors and nurses have worked across the region, including in Jamaica. This has expanded with the advent of the pandemic. In April, Cuba dispatched nearly 500 health professionals to eight CARICOM countries. One hundred and forty of them came to Jamaica. The island’s health minister, Christopher Tufton, says scores more critical care nurses are to arrive soon.

R&D PARTNERSHIPS

Against this backdrop, we are surprised that despite the pushback against unidentified forces, as is implied in CARICOM’s statement, the community isn’t more aggressive in exploring the possible acquisition and use of COVID-19 vaccines being developed in Cuba. In fact, the sentiment of CARICOM’s leaders notwithstanding, we sense a reticence, including by Jamaica, to engage the Cubans on their vaccines.

That ought not to be the case. For, given the relative advancement of Cuba’s biotech industry as well as the long-standing trade and economic cooperation agreement between CARICOM and Cuba, the prospect of research and development partnerships should be on the table.

Academies like the regional University of the West Indies (UWI) and Jamaica’s University of the Technology (UTech), among others, are, we feel, prime candidates for these types of partnerships. It would be a way of leveraging CARICOM’s intellectual and creative capital with the R&D know-how and investment of a country that, given its declared commitment to South-South cooperation, would be perhaps willing to share its expertise.

As Clive Landis, the head of the UWI’s COVID-19 Task Force, observed in April when this newspaper lamented the lack of serious R&D in this area, Cuba (despite its own struggle to keep pace with the technological development of the First World) is the only Caribbean country that invests significantly, and consistently, in biotech research and development. Indeed, Cuba was an early developer of a vaccine for meningococcal disease.

Now, its Finlay Vaccine Institute has two COVID-19 vaccines (of 47 recognised by the World Health Organization – WHO) in clinical trials. The Cubans say that their drugs have shown high levels of efficacy in these trials, but complain that their research receives little attention from the global press.

BE PROACTIVE

Havana appears confident that at least one of these vaccines will be widely available for general use in the early part of next year. If that is the case, the drug will likely be substantially less expensive than those on the market by Pfizer and Moderna, the latter of which Jamaica is expected to acquire under the WHO’s COVAX facility when it becomes more generally available.

The Cuban drug, in the circumstances, according to Health Minister Tufton, is not now on the cards for Jamaica, “although the situation could change over time”.

The Cuban vaccines should definitely be on our site. Or put differently, Jamaica and CARICOM ought not to be passive bystanders, awaiting the WHO’s verification of the Cuban vaccine, if and when that happens.

Obviously, there must be certainty about the safety and efficacy of these drugs before they can be administered to the region’s population. In this respect, CARICOM, through the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and the UWI, ought to be in active discussions with the Cuban government and Finlay Institute in monitoring the development of the vaccine, gathering and reviewing the data for themselves. That, if the Cubans are amenable, should be the first step towards a deeper biotech partnership.

For instance, there may be opportunities for the UWI and/or other CARICOM institutions to undertake joint R&D projects with Cuban agencies as well as for CARICOM investing in Cuba’s biotech sector. If that were agreeable, it would be easy to design appropriate models for such a partnership.