Despite Embargo, Biotechnology in Cuba Thrives

Extract

This is the second in a two-part series.

If one thing can be said of scientists in Cuba, it is that at salaries of US $25 to $30 a month plus an annual bonus of $70 to $90, their life’s work is a labor of love. Yet they seem to thrive on it.

When pressed about their meager earnings, they speak of such things as the food subsidies the government provides, the pennies-a-month residential electricity rates, and the “perks” that come with their jobs: premium housing with little or no rent, for example, and sometimes even a car. And not the least of it, they say, is that they derive considerable satisfaction from their accomplishments.

Among those accomplishments is an extensive array of recombinant proteins, synthetic peptides, monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) and antigens that have enabled their country to routinely screen its blood and blood products for AIDS and viral hepatitis, its pregnant women for neural tube defects in the fetus, and its newborns for certain biochemical birth defects.