Making this drug available to the rest
of the world is a mandate. It's not a
wish. We have to.
It will change the world.
>> In the midst of an oil blockade, power
cuts, and fuel shortages, this group of
US citizens have ignored warnings from
politicians at home against traveling to
Cuba. They're in Havana, accompanied by
Colorado-based physician Dr. Bill
Blanchet, to receive a potentially
revolutionary treatment for Alzheimer's
disease.
>> Neuralstem or Neural Epo Plus is a
medication that's derived from
erythropoietin. Erythropoietin is a
substance that's made by our kidneys
that tells our bodies to make more red
blood cells.
It's also produced by neurons in our
brain. And when our brain is injured,
the Neural Epo helps the brain heal,
stimulates production of brain growth
factor,
reduces inflammation in the brain,
prolongs the life expectancy of old
brain cells, and actually induces
production of new brain cells.
>> Researched and developed by Cuba's
Center for Molecular Immunology, the
drug has been through several years of
trials involving hundreds of patients.
The results have been staggering.
>> The first [snorts] trial they did with
this particular drug is called the
Athenia trial. You can actually find it
in the NIH website in the US. At the end
of the first year, 85% of the people on
placebo had progression of their
dementia. 54% of the people on treatment
had improvement in their dementia, and
30% were stable. So, 84% had improvement
or stability of their dementia. By the
end of 3 years, everyone who was stable
or improved at 1 year
was still stable or improved at 3 years.
That's incredible.
>> With positive results and no major side
effects observed, last year Cuba's
Ministry of Health approved the drug for
patients with mild to moderate
Alzheimer's. A small but growing number
of US citizens are now traveling to
Havana for the treatment. Among them is
86-year-old Russ Buckley.
>> My wife was concerned about my word
finding and mathematical and most
importantly personality deterioration.
>> He's been on Neural stem for 6 months
now.
>> And I have a happy wife.
Because things have improved
significantly primarily my
personality is gone back to its crazy
original self. I still have some word
finding problems but I
you know, spit it out and it works.
Before I would call on apricot and
asparagus or avocado and never get to
apricot.
>> It's usually friends and family of a
patient that notice the changes first.
Everisto has flown in with the group to
collect medication for his
father-in-law.
>> He started to become really quiet and he
was just sitting down without without
participating on the conversation just
being there. He's been on this
medication for about 6 months and he
started asking me all kinds of technical
questions which didn't happen in the
past. He started being himself again.
He's enjoying now
getting into the computer, searching
things and on Google and even looking at
at emails.
>> 52 of Dr. Blanchet's Colorado patients
are now being treated by La Pedrera
Medical Institute in Cuba and being
given Neural stem. He's observed
positive changes in many.
>> These are patients who have been
prescribed the drug in Cuba.
But we are following them very closely.
We do a Montreal cognitive assessment
Mocha.
We also do an auditory evoked response
EEG which measures
speed and function of different
activities in the brain.
And what we're seeing is patients
are improving
on both those metrics. A dear friend of
mine, she was at the point where she
could not name her grandchildren.
She could not tell me what day of the
week it was, what month or what year it
was. She could not tell me what she had
for breakfast that morning. Six months
later,
she's able to tell me what she had for
breakfast.
She's able to name her grandchildren by
children.
She told me the day of the week, the day
of the month. I talked to her daughter
and said, "So, how's your mom doing?"
And her response is, "Oh my god, she's
so good. She's out dancing, she's
socializing, she's her old self again."
I am seeing with my own eyes
in my own clinic
ongoing improvement in these patients
that is just inspiring.
>> Staff from Dr. Blanchet's clinic in
Colorado have also seen the
improvements.
>> It's been interesting to see the the
differences that the
patients have been noticing themselves,
but not only themselves, their family
members that live with them on a daily
basis. So, being able to learn more
about NeuroEze and having access to that
for our patients and to see the data
that has been working, um it's
incredible.
>> This has had such an impact on patients
with dementia, whereas the medications
that we have in the United States are
just kind of keeping patients stable,
not improving their outcomes. I I think
everybody has had a family member who's
been impacted by dementia and how I wish
that
this had been available for my parents
when they were still alive and um to to
be able to
to see them benefit from this treatment.
>> A soon-to-be released Belly of the Beast
documentary, Teresita's Dream, tracks
the research and development of
NeuroEze. It meets the Cuban scientists
behind it, focusing on Dr. Teresita
Rodriguez, who is driven by her mother's
battle with Alzheimer's.
>> I've seen what's done in Cuba and the
enthusiasm in the clinic about this
medicine. Seeing patients get better,
coming back to life. To talk about
without crying is almost difficult. We
have 7 million people in the United
States who need to be on this
medication.
>> The drug is now also being studied as a
possible treatment for traumatic brain
injuries.
>> Historically, this small island nation
has punched far above its weight in the
field of medicine, and its medical
research is world-class, partly driven
by the need for self-sufficiency in the
face of US sanctions, which prevent the
import of medicine and equipment. But
Cuba's once renowned healthcare system,
which used to boast the highest
doctor-to-patient ratio in the world, is
now struggling.
>> On top of medication shortages, backup
generators are straining under extended
power cuts, and fuel is scarce.
Hospitals can now only perform urgent
surgeries.
>> Seeing how wonderful the people of Cuba
are
and seeing on a firsthand basis what our
policy is doing to make these people's
lives harder. To call it embarrassing is
doesn't begin to describe it. That's
something that we did. I'm responsible
for not having adequate incubators in
hospitals, so that babies get to die
in a hospital because they can't get
incubators because the embargo, or can't
plug those incubators in because they
don't have energy. They can't get IV
fluids, the frail elderly who come down
with chikungunya or dengue, and they
could easily be
resuscitated with fluids,
and they don't always have them. It is
so sad that we,
the bright shining city on the hill, is
responsible for what we're doing in
Cuba. That's tragic beyond tragic.
>> the embargo. And then the most recent, I
don't even want to call them
restrictions. I mean, this is just cruel
cuz it impacts the people.
And I don't understand why Cuba
poses such a threat to the United States
that the government has to penalize the
people.
>> And what we, me and the United States,
have done to Cuba, it's it's pretty
almost criminal. Well, it is criminal.
>> What is this embargo accomplishing? It's
helping the United States. And then
compare that to what would the benefit
be to the United States if 600,000
Americans did not become disabled from
dementia every year and we saved $300
billion a year in healthcare costs.
Making this drug available to the rest
of the world is a mandate. It's not a
wish. We have to.
It will change the world.