Author: Orfilio Peláez | orfilio@granma.cu
April 6, 2021 01:04:22
Considered a milestone for a developing country and subjected to a strict economic blockade for almost 60 years, ten products of Cuban science hold, to date, the Gold Medal of the World Intellectual Property Organization ( WIPO).
It is a recognition established in 1979 by that UN entity, to stimulate inventive and creative activity in the world, mainly in non-industrialized nations.
According to the information available on the website of the Cuban Industrial Property Office (www.ocpi.cu), the first Cuban product to be awarded the WIPO Gold Medal was the meningococcal type B vaccine, in 1989, created by a group of researchers from the Finlay Vaccine Institute today, led by Dr. Concepción Campa Huergo.
Then they received it, in 1996, Policosanol (known by the acronym PPG), a drug made from sugar cane wax by specialists from the National Center for Scientific Research (CNIC), and in 2000 the antibiotic for veterinary use Biocida , from the Center for Chemical Bioactives of the Central University «Marta Abreu» of Las Villas.
In 2002, the humanized monoclonal antibody Cimaher, from the Center for Molecular Immunology (CIM), and the Stabilak product deserved the award to extend the shelf life of raw milk without refrigeration, obtained at the National Center for Agricultural Health (Censa).
Other inventions distinguished with the WIPO Gold Medal are: the vaccine against Haemophilus Influenzae Type B, a result of the then Center for Synthetic Antigens of the University of Havana, in collaboration with the University of Ottawa, Canada (2006), as well as such as the team for rapid microbiological diagnosis Diramic, from the CNIC, and the Surfacen lung Surfactant, created in the Censa, aimed at the treatment of Respiratory Distress Syndrome in the newborn, both in 2007.
The relationship is completed by the drug Heberprot P, an emblematic achievement of the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, awarded in 2011, and the invention Monoclonal Antibodies anticd6 (Itolizumab), from the CIM, which, for the treatment and diagnosis of psoriasis, obtained the aforementioned gold medal in 2015.