NEWS

TOMRIC News Agency (Dar es Salaam) - September 5, 2001
Tomric Correspondent
Dar Es Salaam

Tanzania has ordered two South Africans embroiled in the controversial clinical trials of an anti-AIDS drug to leave the country by this Saturday, the Daily News publication reports here today.
The two South Africans, Jacques Siegfried Zigi Visser and Khamalo Themba Bafana were arrested last July in connection with Virodene PO 58 and importation of four other drugs without official approval. As the efficacy of the drug had yet to be proven, the clinical trials raised fears that Tanzanians were being used as guinea.

Visser and Bafana work for the Virodene Pharmaceutical (Pty) Limited of South Africa, a firm involved in the disputed clinical trials of Virodene at the Lugalo Military General Hospital in Dar Es Salaam. The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Mr. Bernard Mchomvu, told the Daily News yesterday that the two South Africans have been notified of the order to leave the country by this weekend.

He said: "Neither of the two South Africans has a legal immigration status. Their immigration permits have already expired and are required to leave the country as soon as possible." Mr. Bafana, according to the Mchomvu, relevant authorities including the ministries of Heath, and Defense and National Services as well as State House, had handled the issue involving the two South Africans.

The South African firm conducted clinical trials using Virodene PO 58 without approval from the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR). The firm failed to meet NIMR requirements when its proposal was tabled, the Daily News says. Mr. Visser is the husband to Prof. Michelle Olga Pretoria, South Africa who is said to be the brains behind Virodene, a drug that was reportedly banned in South Africa in 1997.

The drug triggered off widespread public outcry when attempts to try it on humans failed anti-retroviral tests in Britain and Germany, where it was found to be an industrial solvent, known as dimethlformaminde (DMF). After the company had failed to meet conditions, it then imported fourth other drugs, PO 59, PO 60, PO 61 and PO 62. None of the drugs were registered with the Pharmacy Board. Ministry of Health officials have confiscated the PO series in Shinyanga Region in northern Tanzania.

While the two officials awaited legal action, another firm, Enerkom Product (Pty) limited, brought into Tanzania drugs in a bid to carry out clinical tests on HIV/AIDS patients at Lugalo. Last month after South Africans were arrested as Pharmacy Board inspectors impounded documents and pharmaceutical relating to Virodene PO 58, a consignment containing cartons of Oxyhumate drugs was intercepted at the Dar Es Salaam International Airport (DIA).

The consignment was allegedly imported under the cover of the Chief of Defense Forces (CDF). A former senior army officer who had visited South Africa allegedly brought the virodene Pharmaceutical firm into the country.

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