Cuba to build pharmaceutical plant in Bolivia
Cuba to build pharmaceutical plant in Bolivia
By Nelson Acosta
HAVANA, Sept 22 Mon Sep 22, 2014 4:03pm EDT
(Reuters) - The Cuban state-owned pharmaceutical and chemical company Labiofam plans to build a complex in Bolivia that would help the South American country meet 100 percent of its demand for basic medicine, the company said on Monday.
Bolivian President Evo Morales requested the project and Bolivia will finance it, Labiofam Director General Jose Antonio Fraga said without disclosing the cost.
"We should sign the contract at the end of this month," Fraga told Reuters at a company meeting on Monday. "If we sign the contract we will start right away."
Bolivia hopes to supplement current supplies and meet 100 percent of its domestic demand for basic medicine once the project is complete, and any excess production would be exported mostly to countries within the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of America (ALBA), an association created by leftist governments in Latin America.
"This is basically for poor people because they can't afford the prices set by the trans-nationals," Fraga said. "So these industries will be subsidized by the state or their products will be sold at a very small profit margin, just to sustain themselves, not to get rich."
More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/22/cuba-bolivia-idUSL2N0RN1CV20140922?rpc=401
