X-Message-Number: 7561 Date: Sat, 25 Jan 1997 18:14:28 -0500 (EST) From: Charles Platt <> Subject: Background on the Visser News There is now a search engine dedicated purely to South African web sites. With its help, I found the following items that were placed online by the Electronic Mail & Guardian of South Africa. --Charles Platt ------------------------------------------------------------- ANANZI: The South African Search Engine Ananzi Query Results Your Query: Olga AND Visser 1. Mail & Guardian Home Page [rating 10] http://www.web.co.za/mg/ ZA*NOW is South Africa's only daily newspaper to be tailored solely as an online resource, making extensive use of hyperlinks to other sites to put news in its context. New editions first appear at lunch-time each week day, and updates follow every few hours -- more often when the news warrants it. ------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, January 22, 1997 PRETORIA SCIENTISTS CLAIM AIDS BREAKTHROUGH WENESDAY, 4.30PM: A GROUP of Pretoria scientists has developed a drug for treating Aids which they believe is a dramatic breakthrough in the treatment of the disease. The researchers claim the new drug, Virodene, has produced far better results and is much cheaper than any drug or combination of drugs on the market. In a special presentation to the full Cabinet this morning, the team said results of preliminary trials over the past few months on a dozen Aids patients suggest a major breakthrough in the fight against the deadly disease. The researchers received a standing ovation from the Cabinet after the presentation. The scientists and some of the volunteer patients said they believe the research gives rise to fresh hopes that a cure for Aids might be found before the turn of the century. The scientists told the Cabinet that more research into Virodene is required, and asked for R3,7-million in state funding to continue their work. Their short-term prognosis is that Virodene kills the Human Immunodeficiency Virus in the body and allows people infected with HIV to live a long and normal life. One of the most dramatic trial results was that Virodene could apparently even pull full-blown Aids sufferers back from the brink of death, reverting their condition to that of HIV-positive, in terms of which they are no longer so susceptible to opportunist diseases. While another two years' research is required to find out whether the drug will ultimately cure Aids, another six months of testing will determine whether there is any re- emergence of the virus in any patient who has undergone the full Virodene treatment. Treatment of the trial patients with Virodene dramatically reduced their PCR (virus count per microlitre of blood) and boosted their CD4 (white blood cell count per microlitre) in just one to three weeks. Virodene was developed and has been patented by three scientists attached to the University of Pretoria: researcher Olga Visser, who discovered Virodene's anti-viral properties, and cardio-thoracic surgeons Professor Dirk du Plessis and Dr Kallie Landauer. They were assisted by Eugene Olivier, a clinical pharmacologist based at Pretoria Technikon. Meanwhile, the UK-based Aids organisation Owen Wiggins Trust has condemned the claimed breakthrough, expressing alarm that the scientists who developed the drug presented their research findings to the Cabinet before putting it to their scientific peers. Dr Robin Gorna of the trust said the claims are dangerous and require a lot more research. She said it appeared the formula for the drug is no different to other she had seen, adding that such claims can be extremely destructive for people living with HIV. ------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, January 23, 1997 AIDS 'BREAKTHROUGH' BROKE ALL THE RULES Medical experts wonder why the Pretoria researchers who claim to have made an Aids breakthrough did not come to them with their startling find. Science editor Lesley Cowling reports on why they went to the politicians first. ------- THREE Pretoria scientists broke every rule of scientific method this week when they took their research to a Cabinet meeting, saying they might have a cure for Aids. But the man representing them says they did this because they had been "blocked" by the Aids research establishment, who refused to collaborate with them when they wouldn't share their patent rights. The three scientists, who are attached to the University of Pretoria cryogenics researcher Olga Visser, and cardio- thoracic surgeons Professor Dirk du Plessis and Dr Kallie Landauer -- have patented a formula they call Virodene, which they say kills HIV. They presented their findings to the Cabinet this week and asked for R3,7-million to continue their research. But although Deputy President Thabo Mbeki said the government would consider funding the scientists, and members of the Cabinet applauded at the end of the presentation, real doubts have emerged about the validity of the research. These include: The National Institute of Virology has confirmed that the researchers approached the institute some months ago and asked it to run laboratory tests on certain compounds. HIV research specialist Dr Des Martin said the tests had been inconclusive --in other words, had no effect on the virus. However, he said he didn't know whether the substances they had tested were the constituents of Virodene, as the researchers could have changed the formulation. The researchers have not submitted their work for peer review either by publishing, announcing their findings at the recent Aids conference in the United States, or presenting it to experts in the field of HIV research). They have also not released the details of the compound called Virodene, which it makes it difficult to assess the validity of their conclusions. The dean of the University of Cape Town's Medical School, Professor JP van Niekerk, said: "We don't know enough to comment properly, because we were informed by the media. It would be usual if there was a breakthrough of a medical kind to first inform the scientific community, which would need to hear it and evaluate it." Zigi Visser, Olga Visser's husband, who is representing the researchers, said they "have been blocked" by the Aids establishment, and implied that they had received little co- operation because they weren't prepared to share their patent rights. The strongest evidence was human -- the patients themselves, who told the Cabinet that their condition had miraculously improved. But David Spencer, who runs the Johannesburg Hospital's Aids clinic, said it was not possible to assess the trial because the researchers have not shown what controls they used. "We need to know that they controlled for other drugs, for example." Medical Research Council president Dr Walter Prozesky said testing the drug on 12 patients was known, in pharmacological practice, as a Phase 1 trial. "There are many Phase 1 trials for drugs run all over the world, but they don't give the correct answers. They don't give the side effects, which only become known after a few years." An HIV researcher from the Aaron Diamond Aids Research Centre in New York called the scientific evidence presented in a South African Press Association story on how Virodene works far-fetched". The story quoted Visser saying Virodene attacks the RNA of the virus. However, the researcher pointed out that Visser has not explained how Virodene distinguishes between human RNA made up of the same basic building blocks as the viral RNA) and the viral RNA. The researchers are not experts in HIV, or in virology and microbiology. The Medical Research Council, which funds the work of medical scientists, has no record of any of the researchers receiving grants or awards from the council in the past 10 years. Pretoria University was unable to provide curriculum vitae for the scientists, or information on their research achievements and funding. However, the researchers have had some international success in their field of cryogenics -- the preserving of live organs. A senior Aids researcher at a leading drug company said it appeared irresponsible of the scientists to make such a fanfare when they had not put their drug through controlled clinical tests. It was very unusual to approach the government directly for funding. If the team had approached his company or any other company, their work would have been given very serious consideration. "The money involved in Aids drugs is huge. Any company would be mad to pass up an opportunity." Zigi Visser said: "We did follow procedures, going to major pharmaceutical companies, who originally supported us, but as soon as results began to prove more and more successful, they pulled out," He said some of the companies wanted them to give them substantial shares of the patent in order to continue with the research. When we realised some people were not happy with what we are doing, we went underground and had to pay for the research ourselves." Dr Ute Jentsch of the South African Medical Research Institute, a microbiologist with an interest in Aids, said she had not heard of the Pretoria University work until Wednesday's press announcement. She said all new treatments had to be approached with a degree of scepticism until controlled clinical tests had been executed. "Lots of people claim breakthroughs which come to nothing." Despite the doubts, it seems unlikely three established scientists would go public in this fashion if they did not have good evidence that Virodene works. And, according to Zigi Visser, all the research to date -- about R800 000 worth -- had been funded by his wife and himself, an investment they would have been unlikely to make without some hope of a return. He said the researchers had taken their work to HIV experts, who sometimes helped them, but they always hit problems "when the subject of patents came up". They would be publishing in the next few months, he said. The three researchers want to experiment on 30 more people within the next six months, and hope to have the medicine commercially available by 2000. ------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, January 23, 1997 UNHEALTHY EXAMPLE The extraordinary Cabinet meeting this week in which ministers stood up and applauded a "breakthrough" in Aids research raises intriguing questions about Health Minister Nkosazana Zuma's approach to the crisis. ----- STILL smarting from the R14,2-million Sarafina II debacle, Zuma turned down the scientists' request for funding from her department late last year, claiming she could not authorise the R3,7-million they wanted. Instead Zuma directed them to the Cabinet, personally arranging Wednesday's audience. Her spokesman, Vincent Hlongwane, said on Thursday that decision was because the Aids crisis "is not the preserve of the Department of Health". Zuma's funding stance does, however, seem strange, given the R40-million assigned this year to her department's HIV/Sexually Transmitted Diseases Directorate, which counts research among its various operations. The directive - the government's main Aids initiative - also has European Union money and a hefty budget from the RDP at its disposal. It is not clear what role the directive played in bringing the Pretoria treatment to the fore. New head Rose Smart was out of the country this week, and health department director general Olive Shisana was not taking calls. The Cabinet meeting is a slap in the face for funding agencies like the Medical Research Council and the Foundation for Research Development, which apply strict criteria when funding scientists. It also comes at a time when subsidies to universities (and, consequently, university research) have been slashed, leaving many scientists scrabbling for funds. They feel the rules of fairness have been breached, as they have to go through a set of processes to earn the right to funding. Zigi Visser, husband of researcher Olga Visser, said Zuma had supported them" when they were being "blocked" in their research. It was Zuma who set up the Cabinet meeting, he said. Professor Peter Owen, a medical professional at the University of Western Cape, who helped develop the African National Congress's health policy before 1994, said: "The minister herself used to work in the Medical Research Council - how could she allow something like this to get to the Cabinet? Any Tom, Dick or Harry can now come forward to the Cabinet with the flimsiest evidence." ------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, January 24, 1997 AIDS RESEARCHERS: NO ETHICS COMMITTEE MANDATE FRIDAY, 9.30AM: THE three Pretoria University medical researchers who claimed they had found a wonder drug to fight Aids earlier this week did not have permission form the medical school's ethics committee to conduct human trials, a universty representative said last night. He said the developers of Virodene P058, Olga Visser, Professor Dirk du Plessis and Dr Callie Landauer, had presented their research proposal to the ethics committee, but it had not been approved. He added that they pressed on regardless. The university has announced that it will conduct an inquiry into the research practices of the scientists in conjunction with the provincial health department. Since the researchers presented their findings in a presentation to the Cabinet on Wednesday, they have been roundly criticised from all quarters for not first putting their findings to their peers in the scientific community. Medical researchers and Aids organisations have said the claims must be researched further before they can be taken seriously. Visser rejected the criticism, saying: "Everything was done right and the way it should have been." FRIDAY, 4.30PM: THE National Institute of Virology today dismissed the claims made by three Pretoria researchers this week that the drug Virodene P058 reverses Aids. Prof Barry Schoub of the institute said today the drug could not be given any scientific credibility until more is known about it. Schoub said the revelation could only be regarded as "tinpot material" until more details on the research project and drug are made available. "I would say this is just one of the many so-called cures that various people some up with every now and again ... It should certainly not have been tested on patients". Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=7561