Cuba Expects Higher Pharma, Biotech Sales For 1996

Cuba expects to increase substantially its sales of pharmaceutical base materials, biotechnology products and microbial agents this year, compared with 1995, reports the Havana-based Granma International. Exports of such products, it is said, will be extended to 10 countries this year.

The commercial division of Cuba's National Biopreparations Center, BIOCEN, has said that the strategy for foreign sales has been concentrated on the Latin American market through distributors in Panama, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Ecuador and Peru. Sales will also take place this year to companies in Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Colombia, Argentina and Iran, the report notes.

BIOCEN is also recording expansion of its turnover to public sector and private companies, with sales of finished/packaged products boosting the added value of its production.