The price of such drugs places them out of reach of most people in developing countries where AIDS is spreading rapidly. Lead products include hepatitis vaccine, novel human and animal vaccines, pharmaceuticals, transgenic plants and genetically modified fish. Last week, Castro touted Cuba's development of world-class AIDS drugs and offered to help Brazil and South Africa ignore drug company patents and produce the medicines. The South African government is waging a landmark court battle with 39 large pharmaceutical companies to facilitate access to cheap medicine. Delegates from 33 countries argued that the world's poorest countries should have options including parallel importation of medicines and compulsory licensing, allowing countries to import brand-name drugs from other countries where they are sold at lower prices and to issue licenses to produce cheaper versions of patented drugs.
Pharmaceutical companies argue both strategies compromise patent rights.
With the end of Soviet support for Cuba in the early nineties the economy nosedived, and the manufacture of cheap AIDS drugs could be an important foreign currency earner for the cash-strapped island.