Americans Are Also Hurt by the U.S. Embargo of Cuba:
Medical Research, Clinical Trials, and Availability of Cuban-Developed Drugs are Limited

July 6, 2001

This letter was accompanied by the Pugwash Issue Brief on Cuba and distributed to all members of the US House of Representatives.

Dear Colleague,

I would like to bring to your attention the June 2001 Issue Brief produced by the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, the 1995 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. This newsletter explores the effects of the U.S. embargo on US-Cuban medical cooperation. I especially encourage you to read the article by Dr. Kenneth R. Bridges, Director of the Joint Center for Sickle Cell and Thalassemic Disorders at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.

As you know, drugs and medical devices developed by Cuba are not available to Americans. This includes vaccines for heart disease, cancer, hepatitis-B and meningitis-B, although for the latter a special protocol is being negotiated because the drug is so needed and desired by the U.S. medical and pharmaceutical community. Common areas of research requiring clinical trials, such as sickle cell disease, are also denied from engaging in joint clinical trials. Cuba has also developed fetal monitoring equipment that is being used in Canada, the United Kingdom and twenty other countries, but not the United States.

While only lifting the embargo will make these drugs, medical devices and opportunities for joint research truly available for all Americans, H.R. 2138, the Bridges to the Cuban People Act of 2001, takes important steps forward. For example, it would allow the import into the United States of Cuban-originated medical devices and medicines that are not commercially available in the U.S. already.

I encourage you to read the articles in the attached newsletter, and I encourage you to contact the offices of Representatives Jose Serrano and Jim Leach to become a cosponsor of H.R. 2138.

Sincerely,

James P. McGovern
Member of Congress

Congressman McGovern also addressed the First Inter-American Conference of Pharmacy and Nutrition at the University of Havana and cited the Pugwash Issue Brief on Cuba.