US is open to drug deals

Both departments said the U.S. government is open to considering similar drug deals,

Ah, that got your attention! But wait, there's more, forgive me my sins for teasing!

SAN FRANCISCO -- In a rare exception to long-standing American foreign policy, U.S. officials have approved CancerVax Corp.'s deal with the Cuban government to develop three experimental cancer drugs created in Havana.

It's the first such commercial deal approved by the U.S. government between an American biotechnology company and Cuba, which has spent $1 billion building a biotechnology program that is among the most advanced in the Third World. One of the three drugs included in the deal attacks a cancer cell in a novel way.

This news item surprised me, because I know that President Bush has introduced even more restrictions as far as Cuba's concerned, and the company concerned here, Cancervax, is to pay Cuba 1 millin dollars annually for the next 3 years. But the Prez is sticking to his guns - no cash goes to Cuba, it's to be food & medicine instead.

So what does this all mean, and more to the point, what's in it for the US? All will be revealed at

www.wired.com...