X-Message-Number: 8859 Date: Thu, 27 Nov 1997 10:41:59 -0500 (EST) From: Charles Platt <> Subject: Robert Ettinger / Visser I was interested by Robert Ettinger's recent message bringing us surprisingly positive news about Ms. Visser. Unfortunately I get the impression that one of Bob's sources (perhaps THE source) for his news is Ms. Visser herself. From a South African journalist, I have received the following items which indicate that things are not going quite so well for Olga as Bob has been led to believe: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Business Day November 21 Affidavit leads to raid on researcher's home, office PRETORIA - Medicines Control Council officials on Wednesday raided the Pretoria office and home of Olga Visser on Wednesday, who helped develop the controversial anti-AIDS drug Virodene P058. The council officials were apparently looking for evidence that Visser and her colleagues were still treating AIDS patients with Virodene in contravention of a ban slapped on the drug by the council several months ago. Visser said the council confiscated patient files from her premises. Asked for comment yesterday afternoon, a spokesman for council head Prof Peter Folb said he would talk to the media about the matter this morning. Visser's husband Zigi, who manages Cryopreservation Technologies, the company that holds the patent for Virodene P058, said yesterday the Medicines Control Council raid was apparently made on the strength of an affidavit by a patient who claimed he was being treated with Virodene. "They have a trumped-up charge from a patient no one knows about," he said. "It is probably a desperate attempt by the Medicines Control Council, pharmaceutical companies and AIDS activists who are trying to bury Virodene before the new health bills come into effect." Zigi Visser said he was not shown the alleged affidavit. However, he and his wife had co-operated with the Medicines Control Council during the raid, he said. Talking about a news conference called by the University of the Witwatersrand's Centre for Applied Legal Studies in Johannesburg today to discuss the alleged illegal supply of Virodene to HIV-positive patients and AIDS sufferers, Visser said: "We are not concerned. We can defend any action that might be brought against us." Olga Visser, along with researchers Prof Dirk du Plessis and Dr Callie Landauer presented their findings on Virodene to the cabinet in January this year, claiming the drug was cheaper and better than any other AIDS drug on the market. They asked for government funding to continue their research, but when this became public there was an outcry from the medical fraternity. The Virodene researchers were accused of flaunting accepted research procedures and trying to leapfrog the queue for research funds. The Medicines Control Council later banned Virodene because it contained an industrial solvent, dimethylformamide, which council members said was toxic to humans. Olga Visser said yesterday: "I do not know if there are patients on Virodene, but if there are, I have no idea where they are getting it from." She said that it could be coming from outside SA. Zigi Visser said Cryopreservation Technologies had told several small pharmaceutical companies and academic institutions in other countries how to produce the drug. Virodene was being produced in African countries like Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, he said. end of report ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In addition, I am told that there is more detailed information, and quotes from a AIDS sufferer who actually took Virodene, in the Sunday Independent at http://www.sunday.co.za/ under the headline "Police called in as banned drug poisons Aids patients." --Charles Platt Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=8859