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Momentum Cuba's main businesses in Cuba right now are healthcare and biotechnology. There is a long story behind this short sentence made by Momentum Cuba President Gökhan Eşeli. What adds excitement to the story is that health, which has been on Cuba's agenda for more than 60 years, and biotechnology, its version reflected in the 2000s, create a new development cycle intertwined with each other. Biotechnology, which brings together living cells and technology, has the leading role in the story.
Eşeli said that they have received the Turkish and regional representation of two important state companies operating in the field of biotechnology in Cuba and said, "One of the two important drug series subject to the agreement is called Vidatox. This medicine is a drop produced from the venom of the blue scorpion that grows only in Cuba and is administered to people receiving radiotherapy or chemotherapy as cancer treatment. This supplement strengthens the immune system while relieving aches and pains. "The patient does not lie down unhappy and exhausted, and Vidatox has also been proven to combat moderate tumors," he says.
Eşeli describes these as a businessman, but a simple Google search identifies this supplement, which is sold through Amazon from the distributor's stock, as a natural product that helps gain weight, reduces cough and improves the quality of life. The product, which is used as a support by those receiving classical cancer treatment, does not constitute an alternative to any treatment.
Although it is only a support product, Vidatox has already played an important role in Eşeli's life. Eşeli manages to take a delegation consisting of three people, a scientist, a doctor and a lawyer, to Cuba after obtaining the necessary - and difficult to obtain - permissions after a four-month process. The change caused by the detente in the Obama era being replaced by the policies of the Trump era is evident from the fact that the USA withdrew its ambassador from Cuba. As a result of this change, the process has become more difficult, but a special visa type, the scientific exchange visa, opens the way to take the US delegation to Cuba. Eşeli wants to take the delegation, which is making contacts for health cooperation here, to La Pradera, a center that supports those receiving cancer treatment in Cuba.
While he was waiting to meet the director and the oncologist at La Pradera, he was told that there was also a Turkish patient at the facility. Eşeli said, “There is a Turkish patient. As former diplomats, we always have a consular reflex when we are abroad: let's go and say hello. When anyone said this step, they showed it. I waved and greeted a bearded man in his 40s. We started chatting. "He said, 'I am not sick, my father Arif Sağ is receiving treatment,'" he explains.
While they had a short chat with Sağ, who was sitting by the pool, they left when the oncologist called. However, Arif Sağ's telling of his experiences here after returning to Turkey provides unexpected support for Eşeli in raising awareness. The Vidatox network is expanding unexpectedly for Eşeli. After a process that included La Pradera's oncologist being in Serbia for a month, both countries are committed to working together. In fact, while Eşeli was in Cuba, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic's visit to Cuba was taking place.
Spirulin, the other supplement product distributed by Eşeli, is a natural pill made from seaweed. Although this product is not linked to cancer, it has a similar use: it is a support product for athletes and those who work hard at work.
He takes great care to stay away from being a hope-monger about cancer, which has critical and emotional dimensions, and defines himself very clearly as a businessman. The result of this is that he clearly defines the company he founded as a businessman as "Momentum Cuba is a company that specializes entirely in Cuba and is engaged in the fields of health and biotechnology." He makes this distinction clearly, leaving the health-related evaluation side of the job to a general surgeon. This is what Cuba's role in developing its own health solutions requires. The vision of "providing free quality health care to its citizens", established after the communist revolution in the country, and the intense work done in this field over the past 60 years have made Cuba one of the leaders in the health sector. The model of health care in Cuba also varies.
The work done here is not focused on generating income. While services that are free to Cuba's own citizens are provided to foreigners, a certain fee is charged, but there is a system in which patients are accepted if their health reports will be examined and if they are truly beneficial. Eşeli, who is used to working with the rules due to his diplomatic background, has no problem abiding by these rules in Momentum Cuba, but Eşeli has difficulty believing the events he experienced, such as the movie, including his encounter with Arif Sağ, an acquaintance from the Republican People's Party (CHP), in Cuba. .
On the other hand, these events bring to life what he experienced in Cuba, where he went as a diplomat in 1996. Eşeli, who went to this country at a time when Cuba was starting to open up to the outside world, came to Istanbul for the Habitat Summit of Cuban President Fidel Castro; He was working at the Havana Embassy in Cuba during the wave of Turkey-Cuba relations, which became very active after he attracted great attention due to both his sympathy for Cuba and his statements about Ataturk. Stating that his role as the second man in the embassy during this period gave him a lot of benefits, Eşeli does not hide that the connections established during the warm relations here were very beneficial to him as a businessman. However, he adds that due to the nature of the regime in Cuba, these relations are shaped by a serious state structure.
This is a subject that is very prone to misunderstanding due to the "I know people, we can handle it" mentality in Turkey. For clarity, it is useful to emphasize knowing the procedures in Cuba and what goes through what processes. Cuba is a country where controls and approval processes are very strict, a tradition derived from communism. Eşeli clarifies their position in this equation with the words: "We operate in our offices in Havana and Istanbul, based on our 21 years of experience in political, social and business fields in Cuba." When we go deeper, the definition is “Momentum Cuba is the authorized representative of the Cuban Ministry of Health and has a license to provide all the services offered by the Cuban health system internationally. Cuba is known for its success in treating many diseases that are considered incurable in the West. The country's huge investments in the biotechnology sector have emerged primarily in cancer treatments, skin and diabetic treatments.
Just the two products that Momentum Cuba has put on its agenda with the agreements it made with the Cuban State are enough to get a clear idea on this issue. Vidatox, for which Turkey authorized distributorship rights have been obtained, is an oncological product, that is, cancer-related, while the other product category, for which Turkey rights have been obtained, functions in the field of dermatology for the treatment of vitiligo and psoriasis. The products in the second product family are produced using human placenta and constitute one of the most distinctive works of the Cuban biotechnology sector. Eşeli says, “As a result of the agreement we made with the Placental Histotherapy Center in Havana, we have obtained the Turkish rights of this product family.”
Cuba is now more willing and making more efforts to open its products to the world, which are "famous" but have been slow to open to world markets until now. The country's health record is a strong pillar here. Thanks to the importance given to health services, Cuba has managed to increase the average life expectancy above the USA, reduce the maternal-infant mortality rate to zero, and prevent the transmission of AIDS (HIV) from mother to baby.
Eşeli, some of whose business is related to the USA, says that the slowdown in US-Cuba relations during the Trump era, during the Obama period, also slowed them down. It is obvious that this period, symbolized by Obama's visit, international hotel chains starting to open hotels in Cuba, and the Rolling Stones concert, is behind us, at least for now. Eşeli has a positive view, saying that this slowdown during the Trump period slowed down other formations that could rival them, thus giving them time to prepare.
Eseli may be right about this, but it seems more appropriate to think that this is a diplomatic discourse while dreaming of long-term dreams in the field of biotechnology that include production in Turkey. It would be beneficial to be faster in establishing the biotechnology bridge between the two countries, which will be especially beneficial to Turkey. What Eşeli said about the excitement created by the short episode of the Fast and Furious movie shot in Havana points to the attraction that speed can create here. The excitement of the racing scene on the Havana beach is a sign of the impact Momentum Cuba can have in expanding Cuba's biotechnology products abroad.
Link: https://www.fortuneturkey.com/turkiye-kuba-biyoteknoloji-koprusu-53382
