Sistema de salud e industrias farmacéuticas y biotecnológicas en Cuba, o cómo se materializa una revolución socialista (1a parte)

This article explains how the Cuban Revolution managed to build, from the disadvantaged position of a small southern country with no natural resources – and under US sanctions – a comprehensive, universal, effective, and free public health system (Section 1). It then examines the origins and development of its local pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries (Section 2), as well as the main players in medical research and their recent advances (Section 3). Next, it presents Cuba’s international cooperation in medical matters (Section 4) and its internationalist health missions (Section 5). It also analyses the measures adopted by the island’s health authorities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic (Section 6) and, finally, the originality of health and medical research systems within the framework of a socialist society (Section 7), as well as the problems they face, largely attributable to the US embargo (Section 8).