From March: Cuba Has Made At Least 3 Major Medical Innovations That We Need

[Judi Lynn]

Cuba Has Made At Least 3 Major Medical Innovations That We Need

The trade embargo is holding up research in some crucial areas.

 03/15/2016 02:36 pm ET
Anna Almendrala 


By most measures, the United States’ business-friendly environment has proven to be fertile for medical innovation. Compared to other countries, America has filed the most patents in the life sciences, is conducting most of the world’s clinical trials and has published the most biomedical research.

That’s what makes the medical prominence of Cuba all the more surprising to those who view a free market as an essential driver of scientific discovery. Cuba is very poor, and yet the country has some of the healthiest, most long-lived residents in the world — as well as a medical invention or two that could run circles around U.S. therapies, thanks to government investment in scientific research and a preventive public health approach that views medical care as a birthright.

The island nation, hemmed in by a 54-year trade embargo with the U.S., can’t exchange goods with one of the world’s largest economies and the largest medical market. Still, the country is an unlikely global leader in public health and scientific investment.

“If people knew about these cutting-edge treatments coming out of Cuba, people would want to have them,” said Pierre LaRamée, executive director of the Oakland-based Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba, which advocates for Cuban medical inventions in the U.S. and publishes an international, peer-reviewed journal focusing on Cuban health and medicine.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cuba-medical-innovations_us_56ddfacfe4b03a4056799015

[seabeckind]

1. I think it's related to priorities

Cuba isn't profit driven so they can divert more funds to R&D.

In the USA R&D doesn't yield returns within the margin required to satisfy investors so it turn into a tax writeoff instead of a search for innovation.

Medicine is just one area where this is happening. Add in the divestiture of subsidiaries and the Merger & Acquisition strategy and the resulting drop in our innovation standing in the world is inevitable.