A number of people concerned about the proliferation of untested medicines on the South African market have written an open letter to the Medicines Control Council.
Please contact Roy Jobson of Rhodes University for queries about the letter.

According to the letter:
"Manufacturers and marketers of these products continue to submit their information in terms of the expired call up. This information continues to be accepted by the Medicines Regulatory Affairs Cluster of the Department of Health. As a consequence the products are freely marketed without any regulatory oversight. This is an unfortunate and regrettable failure of the MCC’s statutory obligation to ensure that the availability of medicines and related substances are in the public interest."

TAC is pleased to report two positive developments that all but bring the Matthias Rath saga to a conclusion:

• The state has taken action against Matthias Rath.
• The Rath appeal against the Cape High Court judgment has lapsed.

 

The state court in Cologne has rejected the case of the doctor Mathias Rath. Rath had accused the SWR (German TV channel) of false reporting in its prize winning documentary, “The Fall of Dominik”. Specifically, Rath claimed that the documentary’s assertion that the youth had “a gigantic tumor in his lung” was incorrect.

The court made it clear that the SWR and its codefendant, author Beate Klein of Report Mainz, observed the journalistic principal of due diligence, since they had oriented themselves on a postmortem report conducted at the behest of state lawyers, as well as on several medical opinions that agreed with it. The “farthest reaching agreement among the various reviewers suggests that it represented a reliable source.”
Rath’s assertion that there could not be a tumor in Dominik’s left lung, no less a “gigantic tumor”, because while he was alive, Dominik’s left lung supposedly collapsed completely as a result of a puncture, did not convince the judges in Cologne. The judges countered Rath, saying that this could not be proved from the documents that were submitted during the trial.

Rulings and criticisms against Matthias Rath

The Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASASA) has ordered Rath to withdraw his unsubstantiated claims following a complaint by TAC. 
http://www.tac.org.za/newsletter/2005/ns14_03_2005.htm#asasa
There are three ASASA rulings against Rath. They can be found here.

The British Advertising Standards Authority has forced Rath to remove his advertising for treatments as they were unsupported by evidence and misled the public.
http://www.tac.org.za/documents/BritishASARulingAgainstRath.pdf

The Food and Drug Administration in the USA has cautioned Rath for advertising some of his products in contravention of US law. 
http://www.fda.gov/cder/warn/cyber/2002/CFSANvitacor.htm

The Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASASA) has upheld a complaint by the Treatment Action Campaign against an advertisement for fraudulent treatment for HIV which appeared in the Sowetan newspaper on 6 June 2008. You can download a copy of ASASA’s ruling here.

The advert in question, placed by Gogo’s Traditional Medicines (GTM), claimed inter alia that:

• “finally we have managed to develop medicines for HIV that brings [sic] real improvement in your health.”
• GTM’s Bantam Tonic, “reduces viral load in your body and increases your CD4 count in less than 30 days” and,
• The company’s Pisces Tonic, “helps to fight other opportunistic sickness [sic].”

These products, marketed together as a package in five litre quantities, were advertised for sale “for only” R1500.

On 12 to 14 March 2008, the court action initiated by TAC and the South African Medical Association (SAMA) against Matthias Rath and the Government of South Africa will be heard in the Cape High Court. This court case is critical for the rule of law as it relates to the Medicines Act.

Matthias Rath is the definitive charlatan. Armed with huge amounts of money, megalomania, a lack of conscience and most importantly, the support of South Africa's incompetent Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, Rath has sown confusion in South Africa about the treatment and prevention of HIV. The Rath saga demonstrates how damaging politically-supported AIDS denialism is.

This morning, about  30 members  of the TAC, most living openly with HIV, gathered at St Georges Cathedral in Cape Town and proceeded to hand over a complaint against Christine Qunta, her associate Freddie Isaacs and the company Comforter's Healing Gift to the Director of Public Prosecutions, the South African Human Rights Commission and the Cape Law Society.  Two TAC members also went to Qunta Incorporated's offices in the Reserve Bank Building to give Chr

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• Judgment will be handed down in TAC and Others v. MEC for Health, Western Cape and Others in Cape High Court at 10:15am Tuesday, 26 June 2007.

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• Briefing on TAC and SAMA v. Rath and Government of South Africa in the Cape High Court on 26 April 2007

Patrick Holford

1 March 2007

Patrick Holford is currently touring South Africa promoting his philosophy on nutrition. Mr Holford has made some dangerous and unproven statements. We respond here to a few of these.

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• Tenofovir Campaign details and memo

 By Nathan Geffen

Published in the Cape Times on 20 February 2007

On 26 September 2006 a meeting was held at UCT, Cape Town relating to the fraudulent claims that are being made about medicines. The key speakers at the meeting were Fatima Hassan (AIDS Law Project), Leon Grobler (Advertising Standards Authority) Professor Peter Folb (former head of the Medicines Control Council).