For most Western audiences, Cuba is a touristic paradise stuck in time and virtually detached from world technology networks by the US embargo – anything but a hub of industrial innovation and high value-added biotechnology.

However, a closer look reveals more subtle but equally powerful stories that challenge the homogenizing assumptions of conventional economics and open up scope for more sophisticated reflections on Cuban economy and industry. From this kind of enquiry emerges the case of the internationally respected Cuban biotech industry as the most successful case of science...