Cuba's Drug Imports In 1996

Cuba's Ministry of Public Health says that the country spent $64.2million of hard currency on imports of pharmaceuticals, pharmaceutical raw materials, packaging materials, reagents, isotopes and other pharmaceutical supplies in 1996, according to the journal Granma International.

Imports of seven product lines - insulin, cytostatics for cancer treatment, radioactive isotopes for diagnoses, pacemakers, surgical cotton and gauze, drip bottles and penicillin - amounted to $12.8 million.

Cuban sources say some medical products purchased by Cuba in Europe in freely-convertible currency are more than twice as expensive as those available on the US market. Cuba is unable to buy medicines in the USA because of the long-standing US trade embargo against Cuba.