HAVANA, Cuba.- Cuba will begin clinical tests in the European Union of a locally-produced pharmaceutical to treat diabetic foot ulcers, a specialist announced in Havana.

This is the first time that Cuba reaches this stage of research (stage III) in nations of the so-called First World, said the director of the commercial department at the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center Ernesto Lopez in statements to ACN.

The Havana-based scientific institution developed the one-of-its-kind medication in joint work with the Institute of Angelology and Vascular Surgery.

The specialist explained that the pharmaceutical will be tested in some 700 patients, in a hundred hospitals across the European Union. The test is based on previous stage II clinical assays carried out at healthcare centers in Spain.

According to experts, this will be the most significant diabetic foot research study in the world, from the clinical and scientific perspectives, with great expectations about its results.

The Cuban pharmaceutical, known as Heberprot-P, has become a leading product for the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center, in terms of sales which are expected to translate into more than 100 million dollars this year.

Heberprot-P has been patented in over 40 countries with 17 sanitary registrations allowing its use by health ministries of other countries.

More than 70 thousand patients in different nations have been benefited with the Cuban pharmaceutical, both through government programs and other ways, such as the private market, said Ernesto Lopez.

In Cuba the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers is being administered in 192 healthcare centers and 43 hospitals with major efforts focusing on primary health attention.

According to statistics from the United States 65 percent of patients suffering from diabetic foot ulcers end up with the amputation of lower limbs. The surgical procedure costs a US citizen from 60 to 70 thousand dollars, with hospital services included, said the specialist.