Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 16 December 2001
Jessica Bezuidenhout

This revelation comes only three months after Virodene researchers were kicked out of Tanzania for illegally importing and testing their discredited anti-Aids drug on civilians and soldiers there.

Today, the Sunday Times can reveal how they also planned to feed the herbal tablets to HIV-positive people in Tanzania, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and elsewhere.

According to the manufacturers of the tablet, known as Sutherlandia, doctors who have prescribed it claim that it helps delay the progression of HIV to Aids, increases blood cell counts and helps patients gain weight.

South Africa's Medicines Control Council was shocked to learn about the deal and plans to investigate the tablet. MCC chairman Professor Peter Eagles, said: "By law, all substances which claim to alter or change a function of the body are considered a medicine and should be registered."

An application for permission to conduct a clinical trial will come before the MCC in January.

Details of the more than R2-million deal are outlined in a 31-page contract between the company Phyto Nova, which makes Sutherlandia, and a trustee of Virodene Pharmaceutical Holdings, Joseph Kotze.

Phyto Nova is owned by Professor Ben-Erik van Wyk, head of botany at the Rand Afrikaans University, botanist Dr Nigel Gericke and pharmacologist and cancer researcher Dr Carl Albrecht.

On Friday, Albrecht said: "We were not comfortable dealing with these people [the Virodene group], but we were a fledgling company and it was a substantial order."

Virodene's founder, Olga Visser, confirmed the deal. She said a large quantity of Sutherlandia (dubbed PO59) was bought and some of it taken to Tanzania. "But before trials with PO59 could be done, Ziggy [her husband] left Tanzania. I don't know if he continued after that," she said.

The divorced couple are no longer speaking to each other. Ziggy Visser said: "I really can't talk about it. I don't feel comfortable about it at the moment. It is a very good product, it is non-toxic and inexpensive."

The contract, signed in January, was for 120 000 bottles of the tablets over one year. But the deal fell through in June when the Virodene group defaulted on payment. It is unclear where early shipments went.

Albrecht said: "Today we have no knowledge of where and how they are using the tablets."

Only four weeks ago, the Sunday Times collected 60 of the tablets in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The bottle, labelled as PO59, gave Olga Visser's Pretoria home telephone number.

Virodene PO58 made world headlines in January 1997 when Visser made startling claims that her wonder drug could cure Aids. It was later found to contain a toxic industrial solvent which can cause fatal liver damage. It has been banned from use on humans in South Africa and internationally.

Gericke, in an e-mail to the Sunday Times, said his company was approached by Ziggy Visser in November last year.

Visser wanted to buy Sutherlandia and a variety of other natural products from the company.

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