Cuba slams US restrictions on access to medicines, medical supplies

Cuba has denounced US measures restricting its access to medicines, medical supplies and raw materials needed by the country's biopharmaceutical industry.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said Wednesday that restrictions on essential goods come on top of a US energy blockade and economic sanctions against Cuba, further aggravating an already difficult situation.

Rodriguez wrote in a post on X that amid the sanctions and an intensified blockade, scientists at the Center of Molecular Immunology have developed a potentially promising cancer treatment called 2C12, which has similar characteristics to pembrolizumab, a drug used internationally to stimulate the immune system's response against tumor cells.

"The development of this treatment is evidence of the efforts by Cuban scientists to achieve sovereignty in the field of medicine – particularly in cancer treatment, as the disease is one of the leading causes of death in Cuba," Rodriguez said.

Cuba's Public Health Ministry has repeatedly denounced US sanctions for undermining cancer treatment by restricting access to medicines and supplies needed for oncological cares and local drug production.

While drug research aims to make Cuba more self-sufficient in pharmaceutical production, sanctions restricting access to raw materials hamper the country's biopharmaceutical industry from producing much-needed medicines.