THURSDAY, 4:00PM:
Medicines Control Council officials on Wednesday raided the Pretoria office and home of ‘Virodene’ researcher Olga Visser for evidence that patients are still being treated with the controversial anti-Aids drug that Visser helped develop.
The medicines council placed a ban on the drug several months ago, after Visser and her colleagues asked the government for funding, claiming the drug was cheaper and better than any other Aids drug on the market. The researchers were accused of ignoring accepted research procedures and perhaps worse trying to leapfrog the fundraising process. The council then banned Virodene because it contains an industrial solvent, dimethylformamide, apparently toxic to humans.
Visser’s husband Zigi, manager of the ‘Cryopreservation Technologies’ which holds the Virodene P058 patent, said the raid was based on claims by a patient he had never heard of, and called it “a desperate attempt by the council, pharmaceutical companies and Aids activists who are trying to bury Virodene before the new health Bills come into effect.”