U.S. cancer institute, software firm reach deals in Cuba

[April 22, 2015]  By Daniel Trotta

HAVANA (Reuters) - A U.S. cancer research center and a software company reached agreements with Cuban partners during a two-day trade mission to Cuba led by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in the first trip of its kind since the rapprochement between Washington and Havana.

The Roswell Park Cancer Institute of Buffalo, New York, on Tuesday signed an agreement with Cuba's Center for Molecular Immunology to develop a lung cancer vaccine with a clinical trial in the United States, Roswell Chief Executive Officer Candace Johnson said.

In addition, New York City-based Infor, previously known as Infor Global Solutions Inc [INFGS.UL], has found Cuban partners to resell its software in Cuba, CEO Charles Phillips said.

Both announcements were made at the airport just before Cuomo and a delegation of 18 business leaders and academics boarded their return flight to New York.

Cuomo, a Democrat, is the first U.S. governor to visit Cuba since a December announcement by President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro that they would restore diplomatic relations and work to normalize trade and travel ties after more than a half century of hostility and confrontation.

Obama has used executive authority to relax some parts of the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba but would need the Republican-controlled Congress to lift it entirely and establish normal trade.

Among those on the trip were executives from JetBlue Airways Corp, Pfizer Inc and MasterCard Inc.

Cuomo had said the mission was meant to help New York companies be "first out of the gate" to make business deals under warming U.S.-Cuban relations.

Roswell was able to finalize the agreement for a clinical trial as a result of the trade mission, Johnson said.

"This agreement establishes a collaboration between our two institutions to develop a cancer vaccine in lung cancer," she said of the vaccine developed by scientists at the Cuban center. "We're very excited to take this to the United States to treat patients."

Infor reached a preliminary deal with Cuban information technology companies deSoft, which has 2,500 employees, and Softel, primarily to integrate healthcare data, a company spokesman said.

Data integration is a specialty for Infor, which automates 72 percent of U.S. hospitals with more than 150 beds, spokesman Dan Barnhardt said in a statement.

Infor also agreed to provide software and training at Cuba's University of Information Sciences.

"We were surprised and impressed with the level of technology and expertise they have in healthcare technology," Phillips said.

(Editing by Chris Reese, Jonathan Oatis and Dan Grebler)

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