Cuba is set to enhance strategic cooperation with China in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. [Photo: baidu.com]

Cuba is looking forward to further enhancing strategic cooperation with China in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.

Carlos Manuel Gutierrez Calzado is the president of BioCubaFarma, a global biotechnology and pharmaceutical group whose main research areas cover vaccines and the prevention, control and survey of cancers, and of diabetes and its complication.

Calzado is scheduled to pay a two-week visit to China starting from May 2.

He said he was looking forward to attracting foreign investors to Cuba to produce biological products.

"Everything has so far been going smoothly (in cooperation with China). We believe that it is conducive to strengthening the bilateral relationship and maintaining proper relations. That is the main purpose of our visit."

Calzado will hold talks with Chinese officials in the pharmaceutical industry, and visit some enterprises and attend an enterprise forum.

He expects that his trip to China could push forward cooperation, technology transfer, technology research and development, investment, and exchange of personnel between research institutes and enterprises of the two countries in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical areas.

According to Calzado, there are 100 million people suffering from diabetes in China and 8 million of them may have diabetic foot complications, with half of those cases being severe.

"They have to opt for amputation. If they use the world's only patented medicine for diabetic foot, produced in Cuba, at least 70 percent of the diabetic foot patients would be free from amputation."

China is the second largest medicine consumption country in the world, promising huge potential for Cuba.