7-05-05, 10:25 am

From Prensa Latina

Havana (PL) Citoprot-P, a new product designed in Cuba to treat diabetic ulcers, will be introduced into treatment regimens in hospital centers throughout the country.

The cutting-edge drug, designed by the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center (CIGB), was produced in close collaboration with the Angiology Institute, and is the only preventative alternative to amputation of the extremities in diabetic patients presenting with these lesions.

According to CIGB experts, the medication stimulates granulation and epithelization, and reduces surgical treatment thus limiting more invasive surgery due to relapses. With a unique formula, Citoprot-P includes a potent agent that stimulates proliferation and healing known as recombinant epidermal growth factor, and is recommended for patients with ulcers due to neuropathy or ischemia in stages III and IV of the Wagner classification.

Trials to date have produced satisfactory results, Dr. Pedro López Saura, head of the clinical study group of CIGB, told the press. Because of the results obtained in preliminary studies, treatment with this medication will now be included in the angiology services of the rest of the country.

He said that this therapeutic agent has already been patented in the Island, and patent requests have been presented in Europe, Japan, United States, Canada and some countries of Latin America.

Since 1986, CIGB is the most important research-development-production center in the country. It has high-tech equipment and is staffed with qualified personnel to take a product through the process from biological research to development and production.

With wide-ranging experience in the scientific field, it has produced several important products, such as interferons, the hepatitis B vaccine, recombinant streptokinase and many others that have already have a huge impact on the public health of Cuba and other countries.