Canada's HPIC ships meds to Cuba.

Until recently, Canada's involvement with Cuba's healthcare sector was limited to private companies like Quebec's Health Services International and Winnipeg-based Choice Medical Services--both of whom marketed Cuban healthcare packages to paying Canadian and other foreign patients.

Also active in Cuba is a Montreal-based entity, Health Partners International of Canada (HPIC). Founded in 1988, HPIC has since shipped medical aid to 116 countries around the world; one of its main sources of funding is the Canadian International Development Agency, which has enabled HPIC to disburse more than C$280 million worth of medical aid over the last 20 years.

Despite Cuba's reputation for possessing a world-class biotech sector and sending doctors to developing countries from St. Lucia to Sri Lanka, it isn't widely known for being a recipient of medical aid. Yet since 1995, the counry has received over C$45 million in medicines, medical supplies and equipment from HPIC--ranging from X-ray machines to surgical garments, gloves and bandages.

HPIC, in conjunction with the Cuban Council of Churches, has also provided medicines and medical supplies to 2,000 elderly Cubans throughout the island.

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Multinational pharmaceutical firms that have partnered with HPIC include Bayer, AstraZeneca, Boehringer-Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Hoffmann-LaRoche and Pharmascience. Pallet loads of assorted medicines donated by these entities have been flown to Cuba by both the Canadian military as well as by private carriers like Air Transat.

"HPIC is currently completing a five-year program through CIDA and Cuba's Ministry of Public Health (Minsap)," spokesman Bill Kokesch told CubaNews in an email. "It is Minsap that determines what the needs are in for the Cuban population and then makes specific requests. The acute respiratory program was developed in collaboration with MINSAP as being pointed out as an area of need.

"As a result, a delegation of Cuban medical specialists came to Canada to talk with specialists here as well as tour facilities," he said. "The exchange consisted of a transfer of knowledge to aid in improving Cuba's healthcare infrastructure: arranging opportunities for Cuban representatives to see how the public health system functions in Canada and to share knowledge of best practices. This has been followed up with seminars and workshops in Cuba offered by HPIC."

Kokesch said 70 Cuban medical specialists who received training in palliative care through HPIC have been applying their newly acquired skills at health centers in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Villa Clara, Camaguey and Ciudad de La Habana.

He also noted that Cuba's recent brutal hurricane season mobilized HPIC to ship donated hospital beds and mattresses to the island nation, as replacements for those destroyed in various hospitals there.

One of HPIC's most notable Cuba charity programs was the aid it provided to Tarara Pediatric Hospital just east of Havana. In 2002, GSK donated over C$850,000 in antibiotics and asthma medicines to help thousands of child survivors of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster who were being treated there for free. This allowed Cuba to free up medical resources needed to care for victims of Hurricane Michelle.

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The following year, GSK donated thousands of units of Zofran to HPIC for use by over 1,000 Cuban cancer patients. Zofran is used to stop the side effects of radiation and chemotherapy, such as nausea and vomiting.

According to a recent CBC News report, these drug firms donate their surplus medicines for tax reasons. In Canada, any medicines previously destroyed or donated may be written off for their full wholesale cost.

In early 2007, Canada's Ministry of Finance effectively doubled that tax break by allowing drug companies to also write off the equivalent of half the profit they would have lost on the donated goods, up to a cap of twice their wholesale value. HPIC's Kokesch said this tax break is strictly applied toward donated medicines whose shelf life has not expired.

The Montreal office of Pfizer Inc., for example, has donated over $26 million in excess medicines to HPIC for various programs over a 10-year period. For such companies, donating medicines and other supplies to outfits like HPIC is not only an effective tax-reducing strategy, but saves them the expense of destroying any medicines that are left unused and taking up valuable warehouse space.

Details: Bill Kokesch, HPIC, 955 St-Jean Blvd., #100, Pointe-Claire, Quebec H9R 5K3, Canada. Tel: [phone]. Fax: [phone]. Email: [e-mail].