An 鈥渋mmune-boosting鈥� drug derived from coal is being tested on HIV-infected soldiers in military clinics in Tanzania. The drug, oxyhumate-k, was developed by South African state-owned company Enerkom. There is disagreement over whether Tanzanian authorities have given permission for the trials.
Oxyhumate-k is already marketed as a health supplement in South Africa and is not thought to be harmful to health. However, the revelation of the trial follows a scandal over another South African 鈥渁nti-HIV/AIDS鈥� drug also tested in Tanzania called Virodene. Virodene turned out to be a toxic industrial solvent.
About 350 soldiers in several military clinics are involved in the trial of oxyhumate-k, says Anthony Surridge, Enerkom鈥檚 acting chief executive. The trial, which began in 1999, is being overseen by immunologists at the University of Pretoria and follows smaller scale tests in South Africa. These tests showed the drug was non-toxic, Enerkom says.
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Informed consent
South African ethics experts have criticised the use of soldiers in the trials. They fear that informed consent may not have been given. 鈥淵ou need to question why soldiers were used. That鈥檚 where I would start worrying and criticising,鈥� said Udo Schuklenk, head of bioethics at the University of Witwatersrand, in the South African Mail & Guardian.
Other critics say there is no credible evidence to support Enerkom鈥檚 claim that the drug boosts the immune system.
The South African government has long rejected calls to pay for conventional anti-retroviral drugs to treat its estimated 4.7 million HIV sufferers, claiming that the drugs are too costly.
Despite winning a landmark case earlier in 2001, allowing the country to import or produce generic versions of patented AIDS drugs, the government has said it has no immediate plans to do either.
Enerkom, which is owned by the government鈥檚 Central Energy Fund, was set up to research and develop new uses for coal. According to the Mail & Guardian, the CEF has given Enerkom approximately 拢6 million to research and develop a production programme for oxyhumate-k. The compound is the potassium salt of oxihumic acid, one of the components of coal.