Cuba has begun breeding scorpions to use their poison to make medicines to treat uterine, breast and lung cancer.

The Cuban company Labiofam S.A. is combining scorpion venom with other natural substances to create a medicine that is used at Havana's Pedro Kouri Tropical Medical Institute to treat cancer patients.

Cuban authorities will open two breeding farms in the central province of Villa Clara, some 300 kilometers (190 miles) east of Havana, for scorpions native to the area, including the Buthidae and Diplocentridae species, the official daily Juventud Rebelde reported Tuesday.

The poison extracted from the scorpions has a neutral pH, is water soluble, and has a high degree of both acidic and basic carbohydrates, amino acids, enzymes and polypeptides, all of which are used to make the medicine.