Carlos Manuel Miyares Cao

One of the outstanding men of science in Cuba. Dedicated to research to address skin diseases such as itching, loss of pigmentation, hair loss, cracking and other ailments. The pharmaceuticals developed by this researcher's ingenuity have broad international recognition, especially those made from human placenta to treat vitiligo, psoriasis and alopecia. Such is the case with melagenin, antipsoriatic jelly and anti-alopecia extract. He also works in other scientific fields. He is a member of numerous scientific societies and recipient of numerous decorations in Cuba and other countries.

Melagenin is a medication extracted from human placenta, which is used to treat vitiligo, a disease that causes depigmentation of the skin.

The Cuban doctors Carlos Miyares Cao, pharmaceutical physician, and his colleague Manuel Táboas, professor of Dermatology at the Higher Institute of Medical Sciences in Havana, are the researchers who made public the discovery of the medication. The information appeared in the national and international press on February 14, 1980, the date on which the medication was put on sale in Cuban pharmacies. After concluding the rigorous research that began in 1968, when Dr. Carlos Miyares Cao, just 29 years old, found "by chance" a substance that, when administered to laboratory animals, caused an increase in skin pigmentation.

The discovery was made in the laboratory of experimental pharmacodynamics of reproduction, located at the González Coro Obstetric and Gynecological Hospital in Havana, where Miyares Cao was conducting studies with human placenta, as he held the hypothesis that this organ produced a substance that stimulated uterine contractions, which could explain the cause of premature births.

Based on these criteria, Dr. Miyares developed a technique to keep the placenta alive after childbirth and study the products derived from it, after subjecting it to different environmental conditions. Under laboratory conditions, the scientist was able to make the placenta produce substances it normally produces, and the samples thus obtained were analyzed chemically and pharmacologically to determine their biological activity.

In that meticulous work, Miyares observed that when applying one of the extracted substances to the skin of laboratory animals, an increase in their pigmentation occurred. "This caught my attention powerfully," he recalls. "I knew of the existence of a disease, vitiligo, in which precisely the pigmentation of the skin is lost and I thought that this substance might perhaps have some usefulness in its treatment."

At that time, in the late nineteen sixties, Dr. Miyares, a specialist in Pharmacology and also in Gynecology and Obstetrics, was unaware of the actual situation of existing treatments for vitiligo, or whether there was any effective therapeutic resource. To do this, he contacted Professor Táboas, who pointed out that his finding could be very useful, as the medications existing at that time only temporarily improved the condition, did not cure the disease and had the added drawback of being very toxic.

Miyares isolated the substance, identified it chemically, verified the biological effects he had observed in laboratory animals, and attempted to obtain sufficient quantities to conduct clinical trials.

Almost 40 years after the beginning of this work, the usefulness of melagenin in treating patients with vitiligo has been proven. Dr. Miyares Cao is the director of the prestigious Center for Placental Histotherapy in Havana, where currently not only patients with vitiligo are treated but also those with psoriasis and other dermatological diseases.

Director of the Center for Placental Histotherapy, he holds a Doctor of Medicine degree and obtained his degree from the University of Havana in 1965, subsequently serving as professor of Pharmacology there for 10 years. He is a Senior Researcher and Medical Specialist in Pharmacology and Gynecobstetrics, has directed approximately 100 research projects.

With his direct participation, his institution has created, among medications and cosmetics, more than twenty products, all biological and derived from human placenta.

His patent "Procedure and product to stimulate the synthesis of melanin pigment in the skin" is registered in Cuba, Japan, India, Hungary, England, Russia, Germany, USA, France and Sweden.

He has seventy articles published in specialized journals, four monographs and four books on Pharmacology and is the author of the book titled "Melagenin. Only Effective Resource for the Treatment of Vitiligo". He has participated in numerous national and international scientific events and has taught more than sixty courses to national and foreign physicians.

At present he is a member of the Cuban Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences, International Society of Dermatology based in New York, Medical Association of the Caribbean and Society of Bioenergetics and Traditional Medicine. He has been awarded the Manuel Fajardo order for 25 years as a medical professional, Hero of Labor of the Republic of Cuba, Simón Bolívar of the Republic of Venezuela and Distinguished Citizen of the City of Havana on the 480th Anniversary of its founding.