Cuba Culture News and Information
Reuters
Cuban scientists said on Tuesday the first vaccine to extend lives of lung cancer patients has been approved by Cuban authorities for use and is available in the island’s hospitals.
The drug, CimaVax EGF, has been shown to increase survival rates on average four to five months and much longer in some patients, they said in a news conference at Cuba’s Center of Molecular Immunology.
In contrast to chemotherapy, the traditional treatment for lung cancer, they said CimaVax EGF has few side effects because it is a modified protein that attacks only cancer cells.
They said it was the first lung cancer vaccine to be approved anywhere in the world, although there are others currently being tested.
“It’s the first vaccine for lung cancer registered in the world,” said Gisela Gonzalez, who headed the development of the vaccine, begun in 1992.
The drug is in various stages of clinical trials in a number of other countries and is most likely to be approved next in Peru, where it could be publicly available by year’s end, Gonzalez said.
She said several private companies had been licensed to market the vaccine, but it will be produced in Cuba. Cost for the treatment had not yet been determined, Gonzalez said.
Other cancer vaccines under development elsewhere include one made by Antigenics Inc against melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, and another made by Avant Immunotherapeutics Inc and licensed by drug giant Pfizer Inc that attacks glioblastoma multiforme, the most common and deadly type of brain tumor.
FOREIGNERS WELCOME
Tania Crombet, director of clinical investigations at Havana’s molecular immunology center, said people from outside Cuba can come to the island for treatment.
“It’s possible to provide this vaccine to any patient, because it’s available in Cuba, it’s approved by the Cuban drug agency so we can market the vaccine in Cuba and we can receive patients from outside,” she said.
The exception would probably be Americans, she said, who are restricted from Cuba travel by the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba in place since 1962.
“Even though there is a new therapeutic tool approved in Cuba they probably wouldn’t be able to come to Cuba to receive it because of the embargo,” Crombet said.
The drug has been approved for clinical trial in the United States, but its possible use there is at least two to three years away, Gonzalez said.
Cuba’s state-run biotechnology sector includes around 50 research and development centers and is considered one of the most advanced in the developing world.
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Is it possible in any way to get the Vaccine overseas? I am living in Jordan and my relative in an urgent ned for this drug. How can I get it?
How long does the treatment take?
Try this company http://www.cubanacan.cu/ they deal with medical tourism to Cuba.
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please can somebody inform me with the name of the company that is going to sell this drug, i live in Albania, my uncle is too ill. please help me…
By Mary Murray | NBC News Havana Bureau Chief
A Cuban Scientific Research Institute just patented a promising new drug that it says helps terminal lung cancer patients live longer.
In some cases, the drug known as CimaVax EGF extended the lives of participants in the treatment trials by close to a year.
CimaVax EGF, is classified as a therapeutic vaccine, because it is composed of modified proteins that help the body recognize and destroy cancer cells for those already suffering from lung cancer. It does not prevent lung cancer.
“It is the first lung cancer vaccine to be patented in the world,” said Dr. Gisela Gonzalez, head of the team that researched and developed the drug through testing with hundreds of patients over 16 years.
She did point out that other countries are working on similar vaccines, but that they are still in the development stage.
Gonzalez cautioned that while it is “not a miracle drug,” she does believe it is a “breakthrough in treating terminally ill patients.”
While the research team would not identify any side effects of CimaVax EFG, Gonzalez claims it has numerous advantages over traditional treatments alone. Patients breathe easier, experience less fatigue, less pain and increased appetite. It is administered in conjunction with conventional treatments of chemo and radiotherapy.
CimaVax EGF is undergoing testing in other countries.
After Cuba concluded the Phase One study that determined safe dosage and the best way to administer the vaccine, Phase Two trials started in Cuba, Canada and England, said Gonzalez. This August additional ones begin in China and Peru. Already the vaccine is being registered in Malaysia for sale in Europe.
While testing has been approved by the U.S. government, clinical studies may not begin for at least two years.
The Phase Two studies that were conducted in Cuba and elsewhere took a look at how much longer patients lived with CimaVax EGF as compared to other treatments. Those given the vaccine lived on average 11.47 months compared to 5.33 months for terminal patients treated with only chemotherapy and/or radiation. In the best case scenarios, some fortunate patients lived for up to 18.53 months while taking the new vaccine, compared to other patients who lived for just 7.55 months while undergoing conventional treatment.
Given those clinical results, Cuba started Phase Three studies in the hope that CimaVax EGF could become the new standard of care in treating end stage lung cancer.
About 4,500 new cases of lung cancer are diagnosed annually in Cuba while the disease claims over 1.3 million deaths worldwide annually, with the highest rates in the United States, Canada and Europe.
Across the globe, lungs are the most common site of fatal cancers for both women and men. Lung cancer generally affects people over 50 who have a history of smoking, although other risk factors include exposure to second hand tobacco smoke or pollutant emissions from cars or factories.
CimaVax EGF could also prove effective in slowing other cancers, believes Dr. Tania Crombet, the team’s chief clinical researcher at Havana’s Center for Molecular Immunology. She said that researchers have begun testing CimaVax EGF’s effectiveness against breast, prostate, uterus and pancreas cancers.
Crombet also said CimaVax EGF is now available in Cuban hospitals for any patient, regardless of nationality. “We can market the vaccine in Cuba and receive patients from outside.”
And that could mean an influx of fresh, hard currency for the struggling island’s economy.
With more than 7,000 scientists dedicated to researching new drugs, Cuba has one of the most sophisticated biotech industries in the developing world. Last year the country earned $350 million from exporting 180 different medicines.
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I would like to know where this vaccine will be avalaible in Europe.
If if is possible to purchase it or if the person that needs treatment must travel to Cuba and have the vaccine done. It is for a patient in Poland.
Do you sell it over there.
Thanks for any info
Also I would like to know, being CimaVax EGF a vaccine, if it is one time shoot or if it is like chemion that you need to take it severla times.
Please any info or help you can give me would be great.
Also I would like to know, being CimaVax EGF a vaccine, if it is one time shoot or if it is like chemio that you need several cycles.
Please any info or help you can give me would be great.
If anyone out there as any info please contact me on my email:
Thanks,
Emanuele
IF ANYBODY IS READING THIS BLOGS CAN PLEASE SEND ME SOME INFO IM INTERESTED IN THIS VACCINE FOR A PATIENT WITH NSCLC (NON SMALL CELL LUNG CANCER)
Please let me know at:
how can one get this medicine to India?
how good is this medicine for a patient suffering from lung cancer as primary and having secondaries on bone and brain?
It’s hard to get any objective news or medicine exports out of Cuba. Also, since Cuba’s biotechnology system is not open for inspection, we have no way of knowing what their standards are or how accurate their testing or reporting is.
Just because you read this, doesn’t mean you can get the drug or even that it works.
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I wish every success to all peeople there.If anybody knows more information about this medicine,a phone number or an address,please send it to me.
or any other way to get in toych with them.
Can you please e-mail info on how to get treatment for my dad? he lives in Peru and has lung cancer (stage 4, small cell) He was diagnosed 10 days ago and is about to start treatment, please help!
Hi my grandmother has lung cancer and she needs this injection. i need to know how to get it and who to turn to plese let me know. it is not a problem to travel or money.
Hi my grandmother has lung cancer and she needs this injection. i need to know how to get it and who to turn to plese let me know. it is not a problem to travel or money. please help dont ignore the email.
my email address
I’m sorry but I don’t have any more information than what is posted here.
Cuba does have a good biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry but they are not open to international inspections so one should not believe everything they read about Cuba.
If it sounds too good to be true coming out of Cuba, it is.
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A very dear friend 52 years old who lives in Hungary suffers from metastatic lung cancer with faild responce to all known treatment . He is realy ill and needs un urgent intervention. Is there a way to get the CimaVax brought to him to Hungary? We are ready to cover all the expences.
porfavor ayuda para una madre peruana .
que tiene cancer
I am from Armenia, and also interested in getting the CimaVax EGF for my aunt. How is it possible to get it or tio send it to Armenia????
Dear officer,
How can I get cimaVax EFG drug for my sister? She has bladder cancer ? Is this drug useful for bladder or another cancer or for lung only? Although we would like to see Cuba very much, it is very diffucult to come to Cuba for treatment.
If there is any solution to obtain this medicine, please infor us.
Regards.
Aydogan Yazici Ankara Turkiye
News story just released:
Terminal lung cancer patients are living longer thanks to the world’s first registered lung cancer vaccine, a leading Cuban scientist says.
Cuban scientist Dr. Gisela Gonzalez says she and her team have created a lung cancer vaccine that extends patient’s lives.
Dr. Gisela Gonzalez has spent years researching the vaccine which the Cuban government approved for the use of the general public last year.
Gonzalez and her team have worked on developing the CimaVax EGF vaccine at the Cuban Center of Molecular Immunology since the early 1990s.
She says all those years of hard work have finally paid off as trials show that Cubans with lung cancer are living a little longer after having the vaccine.
“One of my early patients was a 32-year-old man when he started taking the vaccine. I had a son that age,” the scientist told CNN.
“Now he’s 35. He’s living and working. He visited us the other day and said he’s thinking about having kids.”
Gonzalez says that more than 700 patients have received the vaccine over the years, many of them in seven clinical trials in Cuba, Canada and the UK.
More than 400 advanced lung cancer patients received the Vaccine CimaVax EGF in the trials, according to the Latin American News Agency.
The trials showed that the drug extended the life of terminal patients by an average of four months, and in some cases several years, compared with those patients who only received traditional therapies. Younger patients tended to fare better.
“It has the potential to be very important,” according to Dr. Howard Burris, director of drug development at the Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville, Tennessee.
He said the results were comparable to those being produced by two other lung cancer vaccines, GVAX and BLP 25, being developed in the United States.
“Larger trials will show there are subsets that it’s very good for and for others it’s not relevant,” he said.
CimaVax EGF does not prevent or cure lung cancer…
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NEED INFORMATION ON CUBAN BLADDER CANCER DRUGS AND TREATMENTs
we need information regarding the new vaccine… my uncle is seriously ill with lung cancer that has metastasis at his bones. he suffers from pains etc.. we are in cyprus and are in need of this vaccine. please come back with info on how we can purchase it.. thank you
Many many thanks to anyone who could tell me where or how get this Cimavax vaccine !!! Please help to help !!!
Many many thanks to anyone who could tell me where or how get this Cimavax vaccine !!! Please help to help !!!
Por favor necesito comprar esta vacuna, estoy dispuesta a viajar a Cuba. Diganme como la consigo.
Please I need to purchase this vaccines as soon as possible, is there anyone who can tell me where to get it?? I could travel to Cuba as well if necesary, this is for a family member….please help!!!
