HeberSaVax is another achievement of Cuban biotechnology presented at a meeting of the scientific community with Díaz-Canel.

Havana, November 8 (RHC)-- Scientists from the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) together with researchers from the Cuban health system have been developing for a decade a promising vaccine candidate HeberSaVax to guarantee the survival of patients with liver cancer or hepatocarcinoma, a pathology that annually causes more than half a million deaths worldwide.

About this encouraging result of Cuban biotechnology, based on the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma, the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, learned on Tuesday in an exchange with scientists and experts linked to health issues.

Under the name HeberSaVax, the immunogen has been studied in Phase I and II clinical trials. First, the effect of the product was analyzed in other types of solid tumor sites, and a more recent investigation at the Centro de Investigaciones Médicos Quirúrgicas (CIMEQ) in the capital has yielded encouraging results in liver cancer therapeutics.

Dr. C Francisco Hernández Bernal, who is clinically responsible for the development of the HeberSaVax vaccine, acknowledged in statements to the press that the requirements of the national regulatory authority have yet to be met, but "after 10 years of continuous immunizations, we are in the presence of a safe, tolerable product and its adverse reactions are minimal", he emphasized.

This is, summarized the specialist, "a Cuban therapeutic alternative, safe and less expensive than others that exist in the world, available to patients suffering from a complex health problem".

Dr. Yanelis Morera Díaz knows about HeberSaVax before it had that name and was known by letters and numbers; she has worked on the research of the product from the test tube. She was a student when Dr. Jorge Gavilondo, founder of Cuban biotechnology, and Marta Ayala, current director of CIGB, tested the union between adjuvants and molecules. Yanelis says that she became a Master and PhD with research on HeberSaVax.

After listening to the doctors and scientists, Díaz-Canel acknowledged the work of a decade and urged to conclude the study and advance in the regulatory procedures, since the product, he said, will strengthen the treatment protocol for liver carcinoma and will open a path to prove its effectiveness in other cancer locations.