cape town

South Africa's Health Minister, Nkosazana Zuma, announced last week that the Medicines Control Council (MCC), which has clashed with the government by consistently blocking trials of a controversial AIDS drug, will be replaced by a new Medicines Regulatory Authority.

The move follows clashes between government and the MCC about the drug Virodene. In January last year, three researchers at the University of Pretoria claimed to have found a cure for AIDS and appealed directly to cabinet for funds for further research. But the following month the MCC issued a report outlining the dangers of the drug, and halted the illegal clinical trials that were already taking place (see Nature 385, 474 & 386, 6; 1997).

In January this year, the council again refused an application for clinical trials of Virodene, on the grounds that the drug cont ains a highly toxic industrial solvent, dimethylformamide, and that measurements to assess its effects had not been adequately developed.

Early last month the general secretary of the African National Congress (ANC), Kgalema Motlanthe, accused the MCC of “censoring” research on the drug. A week later, the deputy president Thabo Mbeki took the extraordinary measure of launching a stinging attack on the council. In an article written for two of the country's Sunday newspapers, Mbeki concluded that “the cruel games of those who do not care (about AIDS) should not be allowed to set the national agenda”.

Mbeki also vehemently denied claims by the opposition Democratic Party that the ANC had been offered a six per cent financial stake in the company that has patented the drug, Cyropreservation Technologies.

The heads of the departments of medicine at five of the country's seven medical schools have expressed great concern at “political interference” in the functioning of the MCC. In a signed letter, the academics expressed support for the council, which they felt had “served the public of South Africa with the highest degree of integrity”.

Zuma's decision to create a new authority follows the recommendation last month of a report on the council by an independent evaluation team.