Girish Kotwal, the University of Cape Town (UCT) professor who allegedly tested an Aids potion on highly infectious viruses without following required procedures, is to face a university disciplinary hearing.
The Mail & Guardian has learnt that Kotwal is to be charged with failing to follow procedures in researching human subjects, failing to ensure adequate care for laboratory animals, the misleading publication of research results, and failure to maintain adequate health and safety standards in his research.
UCT’s preliminary investigating committee, headed by Martin West, met Kotwal and his legal representative last week and was due to make an announcement this week.
Kotwal has also been barred from all research and teaching activities at the university where he has worked for six years.
This week, the labo-ratory where he tested ”anti-HIV” remedy Seco-met V on pox viruses, allegedly without following required procedures, was fumigated and bolted.
Recruited to the university in 2000 with a reputation as one of the top 10 virologists in the world, Kotwal was suspended earlier this month after the international journal Nature linked him to Secomet V, manufactured by a Stellenbosch bio-pharmaceutical company.
The potion, which has not been registered as a medicine with the Medicines Control Council (MCC) or undergone clinical trials, has been sold locally since 2002.
Joey Gouws, director of the MCC’s inspectorate and law enforcement unit, would neither confirm nor deny that the council was investigating the deaths of two HIV-positive patients treated with Secomet.
She referred all inquiries to Department of Health spokesperson Solly Mabotha, who had not responded by the M&G’s deadline.