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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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."
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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".
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