Cuba's most prominent biotech center has offered a license to 18 pharmaceutical companies in the US to commercialize a diabetes medication.

The drug is called Heber-prot-P, and according to Cuban scientists, it helps to treat diabetic foot ulcers.

Successful treatment helps prevent patients from lower-limb amputation. After being used for six months, the remedy has benefited over 7-hundred patients in Cuba.

Medical specialists say the US is one of the nations where diabetic amputations have become most prevalent.

According to the World Health Organization, more than 170-million people worldwide suffer from Diabetes Mellitus. They say the figure is likely to double over the next few years.

(CCTV August 13, 2009)