(EFE) .- Cuba inaugurated this Monday the CIGB-Mariel Biotechnological Industrial Complex, the first high-tech industry established in the Mariel Special Development Zone (ZEDM), the island’s star megaproject for trade and attracting foreign investment that , years later, it is still a long way from achieving the planned objectives.
The new facility, the most modern of its kind according to Cuban authorities, will be dedicated to the research, development and production of high-standard vaccines and novel drugs, Deputy Prime Minister Jorge Luis Perdomo wrote on his Twitter account.
General Raúl Castro and the president of the country, Miguel Díaz-Canel, attended the opening ceremony of the Industrial Complex, coinciding with the launch of the ZEDM for foreign investment.
The president said that the institution is the result of collaboration between the BioCubaFarma Group and the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB).
The drugs that the industrial institution will develop and produce will be used to treat diseases such as cancer, diabetes, autoimmune and infectious, cerebrovascular and covid-19, among others, he explained.
Among the Cuban drugs that will be produced, he cited the anticovid vaccine Abdala and the Jusvinza drugs -for the treatment of severe and critical patients with covid-19-, Heberprot P -employed in the cure of diabetic foot ulcers- and Heberferon, applied to skin cancer, dengue and conjunctivitis patients.
In the strategic Mariel Special Development Zone (ZEDM), 59 businesses -34 of them in operation- from 21 countries were approved until last September, with investments for an amount exceeding 3,000 million pesos (120 million dollars). In the 7 years that it has been inaugurated, the total barely reaches 2,500 million dollars, a figure that was expected to be an annual investment.
The ZEDM is located in a privileged geographical area on the north coast of the western province of Artemisa and 45 kilometers west of Havana.
Its main objectives are to encourage comprehensive projects that allow the substitution of imports, promote exports with national products of high added value and create jobs, according to its promoters.
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