India Sends Donation to Cuba for Production of Antibiotics

By Carlos Serpa Maceira

Havana, 9 August (RHC) The Government of India has sent a donation of 10 million euros to the Biocubafarma Business Group for the purchase of pharmaceutical raw materials and active ingredients for the production of oral and injectable antibiotics for hospital and community use.

The donation will contribute to the production of medicines demanded by the island's population, such as Amoxicillin, Cephalexin, Cefixime in capsules and suspension, injectable medicines such as Ceftriaxone, Cefuroxime and Ceftazidime, with a six-to-twelve-month coverage.

The donation ceremony was held at Empresa Farmacéutica 8 de Marzo in the presence of Armstrong Chang, Ambassador of India to Cuba, who considered the gesture an example of the brotherhood between the two nations for six decades, based on respect and shared views on economic and political matters.

Deborah Rivas Saavedra, Vice Minister of Foreign Trade, expressed gratitude on behalf of the Cuban government and people for this gesture of solidarity in the midst of the island's difficult economic situation due to the international crisis and the tightening of the U.S. government's economic, financial and commercial blockade against the Cuban nation.

Zenia Madrazo Sangre, director of Empresa Farmacéutica 8 de Marzo, said that the donation of some 80,000 tons of active ingredients will allow the company to increase its production capacity, whose capsule plant was paralyzed a year ago due to a lack of raw materials.

India is one of Cuba's top 20 trading partners, and among the 32 million dollars in exports to the island in the period 2023-2024, pharmaceutical and chemical products predominate, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce of the Asian country.

Beyond the bilateral agreement, New Delhi has granted Cuba important credit lines for the execution of projects in the agricultural and livestock sectors and renewable energy.