Photo: Cuba Noticias 360
Text: Hugo León
Cuba, which is experiencing a difficult situation of shortages in the hospital system, will receive a shipment of approximately 90 tons of active pharmaceutical ingredients sent by the government of India.
The shipment left this Sunday and aims to boost the production of medicines in Cuba, to be able to supply the health sector.
The news of the shipment came from Indian diplomatic sources in Havana, who on the social network X (formerly Twitter) stated that it involved 90 tons of nine active pharmaceutical ingredients.
“These will be used by Cuban drug manufacturers to produce essential antibiotics, in the form of tablets, capsules, syrups and injections, for the treatment of chronic communicable diseases,” the statement indicates.
The assistance reaffirms India’s status as the “Pharmacy of the World” and underlines our commitment to the historic friendship with Cuba, the text adds.
The shipment left on June 2 from the port of Mundra, in the western state of Gujarat. Previously, India has donated medicines and sent technology to the island, but this time it is not the finished medicines, but the ingredients, which is an incentive for the emaciated Cuban pharmaceutical industry.
This sector, which has developed numerous highly prestigious drugs, lacks inputs and raw materials, so the production of a large part of the medicines that they could manufacture is stopped or slowed down.
For this reason, the island’s medication table is affected, with more than half of the basic drugs lacking, according to official sources from the Ministry of Public Health and BioCubaFarma.
Although dozens of medicines were missing in the country, Cuba did manage to export other products, which, according to BioCubaFarma, were intended to earn enough foreign currency to continue operating and to purchase raw materials.
Meanwhile, Cuba once again finds an active and very important ally in India. While the exodus of doctors and health personnel and the lack of medicines hit the island, India’s help is extended to the sector and others, in the form of million-dollar loans, privileged exports and aid.
