1980
It all began in November 1980, when a visionary like our Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, convinced that “the future of our country must necessarily be a future of men of science, it must be a future of men of thought …” , met with American doctors and learned about the natural antiviral factor interferon and its possible use in the treatment of cancer. Six doctors from different specialties traveled from Houston, Texas, United States, together with the North American Democratic Congressman George Thomas “Mickey” Leland (1944-1989), who was later president of the Congressional Black Caucus, interested in learning more about the characteristics of the Cuban people, and help small and poor countries like Cuba, motivated, moreover, by their African American ancestry. Among the travelers also came Professor Randolph Lee Clark, an officer and veteran of the US Army medical corps during World War II, who at the time of his stay in Cuba was the president of the M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute of Houston.