Director General of Health Thami Mseleku has instructed the Medicines Control Council (MCC) to take its hands off controversial vitamin salesman Matthias Rath.
MCC chairperson Peter Eagles revealed this week that Mseleku had instructed the MCC to refer all Rath-related issues to his office and not to discuss or investigate them further.
This follows the furore about Mseleku’s instruction that a consignment of Rath tablets be released after they were seized by Port Health authorities. The officials and Department of Health law enforcement personnel maintained they contravened laws regulating the importation of medicines and foodstuffs.
The MCC was scheduled to discuss the importation of Rath’s multi-vitamins at a regular council meeting last week and a report was prepared by the Department of Health’s law enforcement personnel and submitted to the MCC for discussion.
The report is understood to have dealt with a variety of law enforcement issues, including the Rath consignment’s alleged contravention of laws on foodstuffs, medicines and the Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act.
But, this week, the chairperson of the MCC, Peter Eagles, told the Mail & Guardian that the MCC no longer dealt with the Rath matter, on the instructions of Mseleku’s office.
“The Rath import issue was on our agenda, but all matters pertaining to Rath are now handled by the director general’s office, and we have referred the report to the director general and the Department of Health,” Eagles said.
“We didn’t discuss the Rath report at our meeting. If you want to know anything about the Rath pills, you have to contact the director general’s office.”
Eagles insisted that the MCC was an independent body. “We received complaints from health department inspectors who reported to us [about Rath’s consignment]. But now the matter is being handled by the director general’s office.”
Mseleku’s office this week denied giving such instructions to the MCC.
Two weeks ago, the M&G broke the story that Mseleku personally ordered the release of Rath’s tablets from Port Health. It has now been learned that it is conducting its own investigation into the Rath imports.
“An investigation is under way because of all the uncertainty and rumours around these imported pills, but we are under instructions not to talk about it,” said a senior department official, who asked to remain anonymous.
However, Department of Health spokesperson Sibani Mngadi denied the department was conducting an investigation into “anything pertaining to Rath”.
Rath’s attorney, Brendan O’Dowd, claims in a letter published in the M&G this week that the Port Health officials acted “unlawfully” when they confiscated the consignments of Vitacell.
Among other things, O’Dowd said part of the consignment consisted of a version of Vitacell that did not contain the scheduled substance N-acetylcysteine (NAC), and that there was no legal basis for its seizure.
However, the Department of Health official insisted that part of the consignment included scheduled drugs that were not registered with the MCC.
He added: “According to the Food Act, a medical doctor’s name cannot be used on a label of a food supplement, as if the doctor is promoting the supplement. Rath’s name appears five times on the label of a bottle of Vitacell.”
Jonathan Berger, attorney at Wits University’s Aids Law Project, said this week that it was “outrageous” that the MCC should take instructions from Mseleku.
“The MCC is the only body that can grant exemptions under the Medicines Act — the director general can’t. If Rath’s tablets were imported and contravened certain laws, the DG can’t intervene.”