For the United States, there may be many potential benefits of the recent reestablishment of relations between the US and Cuba, but perhaps the greatest is the country’s lung cancer vaccine, Cimavax, which is free to Cubans. But according to a Wired report, the Cuban government has been paying roughly $1 per shot.

Researchers at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York have reached to an agreement with their Cuban counterparts under which they are now set to start clinical trials of the vaccine.

So far, the research conducted on the vaccine has indicated that it exhibits a low level of toxicity and is relatively inexpensive to produce and store.

It is reported that Candace Johnson, CEO of Roswell Park, has indicated that she intends to get approval for testing Cimavax within six to eight months and is aiming to begin clinical trials within a year.

According to a report on Popular Science, in 2011 the Cuban government started the distribution of Cimavax to its citizens for free.

The report has also indicated that the vaccine is used to target a protein referred to as Epidermal growth factor, which cancerous cells generate to give signal to others to grow out of control.

In 2008, experiments were conducted with the drug. They showed that lung cancer patients receiving the vaccine lived on average four to six months longer as compared to those that didn’t as Cimavax does not attack tumors directly instead it goes after the protein produced by tumors that cause the body to release antibodies.

Cimavax’s point is to keep lung tumors from growing and metastasizing that turns a late-stage growth into something chronic but manageable.

Researchers at Roswell Park are hoping to evaluate the vaccine’s potential medical application as a method of prevention to find out whether it works with other cancer types, producing the same Epidermal growth factor protein.