In the last few hours, Cuba received the first shipment of Aspirin 81 mg produced in China, an essential medicine in the basic medicine on the island that will begin to be distributed in hospitals and pharmacies in the country.
The batches arrived and were immediately unloaded to begin their national distribution, as specified by BioCubaFarma in the official account on X.
arrives at #Cuba the first shipment of Aspirin 81 mg produced in China through bilateral cooperation. #SomosBioCubaFarma https://t.co/Z0wldP21Z3
— BioCubaFarma (@BioCubaFarma) January 21, 2026
The drug, manufactured by the Hubei C&C company in Wuhan, is the result of a bilateral cooperation project that included technology transfer and evaluation by Cecmed.
The agreement combines Chinese production capacity with sustainable financing that comes from profits from PPG, Medsol’s leading product, aimed at ensuring the stable supply of this aspirin, used in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.
Companies in both countries began producing the drug last September. The objective of this production is to cover the island’s demand in 2026, as reported by the business group at the time.
The Cuban side also takes advantage of the facilities of its Chinese partner for access to raw material markets, “which optimizes resources to guarantee the sustainability of the supply of this essential medicine for Cuban patients,” reported the state entity of the island.
100 million tablets in the first stage
BioCubaFarma’s intention is to produce more than 100 million tablets in a first stage and satisfy the demand of the island’s Ministry of Public Health in 2026.
Furthermore, this collaboration opens the door to the manufacturing of other Cuban technology medicines in China, not only for the island’s population, but also for use in other countries, authorities highlighted in a press report.
The announcement last year coincided with the news that a pharmaceutical company with participation from Cuba and Vietnam will produce high-tech medicines for both nationsand also for export.
Genfarma, established in that Asian nation, is the result of an agreement signed in May between the company BCF SA, also belonging to BioCubaFarma, and the Vietnamese company Genfarma Holdings.
Virtually total shortage in pharmacy
At the end of 2025, the Minsao recognized that the country’s community pharmacies face a “practically total shortage”, something that reflects the storm facing the health sector in the midst of an epidemiological crisis, coupled with chronic and acute diseases that are being neglected in their pharmacological treatment.
“There is a practically total shortage in the pharmacy. That is real, the medicines are not there,” said Cristina Lara Bastanzuri, director of Medicines and Medical Technologies at Minsap, in a report published on the portal Cubadebate.
Sector officials pointed out that it is not even possible to guarantee the permanence of drugs intended for chronic patients, such as hypertensive patients, diabetics or epileptics, and that the shortage has become a structural phenomenon.
The Cuban pharmaceutical system is organized around a basic table of 651 medications, of which 62% should be produced by the national industry, while the rest is imported. For years, local production guaranteed pharmaceutical sovereignty at affordable prices, supplying 80% of medicines.
However, that capacity has eroded in just a few years. Bastanzuri explained that the national industry “has stopped responding to requests for medicines on a regular basis,” due to difficulties in importing raw materials, technological obsolescence and energy problems.
Faced with the crisis, the government authorized the personal importation of medicines without taxes in 2021.
Just a few days ago, the General Customs of the Republic reported on their social networks another extension of the exemption from paying tariffs on the non-commercial import of medicines and medical supplies, this time indefinitely, “as long as the conditions that have determined its approval persist.”
