TUESDAY, 5.30PM
The two Pretoria University researchers who appeared before a university disciplinary hearing on Thursday were found guilty of misconduct.
Professor Dirk du Plessis and Dr Callie Landauer were sternly reprimanded for continuing their research into the drug Virodene P058 without the permission of the university’s ethics committee, the university said.
TUESDAY, 4.30PM
TWO of the Pretoria University researchers who developed the drug Virodene P058, which they claimed was amiracle Aids cure, appeared before a university disciplinary hearing on Thursday.
University representative Mike Smuts said the two are cardio-thoracic surgeons Professor Dirk du Plessis and Dr Callie Landauer. Smuts would not say what charges the two face.
Du Plessis and Landauer, together with researcher Olga Visser, earlier this year asked the Cabinet for R3,7-million to continue their research into Virodene. A joint Pretoria University and Gauteng health department committee in February said it had found no evidence that the drug could inhibit HIV. It found the researchers had contravened accepted scientific procedures when testing the drug on 11 patients. The industrial solvent which appears to be the main component of the drug is poisonous to humans and can lead to liver failure.
02