The CIM exhibits significant contributions in research and creation of products and services.
Photo taken from trabajadores.cu

By María Josefina Arce 

A flagship institution of biotechnology in Cuba celebrated a new anniversary this week.  For almost three decades the CIM, Center for Molecular Immunology, has had remarkable scientific results that not only benefit Cubans, but also citizens from different latitudes.

Inaugurated in 1994 by the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz (1926-2016), the CIM is an example of the development achieved by biotechnology and its high prestige in the world.

Since the first cases of COVID 19 were registered in the country, in 2020, that institution was linked to the confrontation of the disease caused by the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

Three drugs produced by the center were successfully used to treat those infected with the virus.

This is the case of the monoclonal antibody ITOLIZUMAB, developed to treat diseases such as leukemia, but which also has other applications.

ITOLIZUMAB, which made it possible for those infected to improve their respiratory capacity, has also been successfully used in other countries such as India, Mexico, Brazil and the United States.

2023 has been a fruitful year. A large trial of the CIMAVAX therapeutic lung cancer vaccine CIMAVAX was conducted in primary health care. It included more than 700 patients and 119 polyclinics participated.

It is worth mentioning the fruitful cooperation that the CIM maintains with the Roswell Park Institute, New York, on CIMAVAX and which allows to know which patients can benefit the most from the product and how the treatment should be carried out.

The center currently has more than 25 clinical trials under way, including NeuralCIM against Alzheimer's disease, the most common type of dementia.

It is also conducting research with Chinese institutions on the NIMOTUZUMAB molecule for pancreatic cancer.

For almost three decades, this center has obtained and produced new biopharmaceuticals for the treatment of cancer and other chronic non-communicable diseases.

The Center for Molecular Immunology is, as Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel described it, an institution of excellence, with significant contributions in research and the creation of products and services.