Controversial prof resigns over HIV remedy
Kotwal, who is chief of medical virology at UCT’s Institute of Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine, will leave his post at the end of the year, according to a joint statement by the university and Kotwal.
An investigation by the internationally renowned ‘Nature Medicine’ magazine earlier this year exposed Kotwal’s role in a concoction called Secomet V, which its Stellenbosch-based manufacturer claimed lowered HIV positive patients’ viral loads.
However, Secomet V (marketed as ‘Ithemba Lesizwe’ or hope of the nation) has never been tested in clinical trials, only in Kotwal’s university laboratory.
Professor David Dent, deputy dean of UCT’s Health Sciences faculty, confirmed earlier this month that while university laboratories were run according to strict protocols, in Kotwal’s case there were ‘breaches in those protocols’.
He said Kotwal’s laboratory had been closed and decontaminated. According the statement there had been an absence of certain appropriate procedures, records and laboratory disciplines.
In an earlier statement, which was later withdrawn, the university said that no researcher, student or staff had been exposed to ‘hazardous material’. The new statement omitted this and said that nobody was ‘actually harmed or injured in the laboratory’.
‘He (Kotwal) was presented with the results of our findings in total and absolute detail and he chose to seek resignation,’ Dent confirmed.
He added that Kotwal would have faced a full disciplinary committee involving ‘witnesses and lawyers’ if he failed to resign.
Dent explained that the university had opted for a joint statement to avoid ‘future ding-dong statements’.
According to the withdrawn statement Kotwal had also had failed to disclose that an article on Secomet, which he published in the ‘Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences’ last year, had been co-authored by a director of Secomet, Stephen Leivers.
The new statement released in the name of Kotwal and UCT registrar Hugh Amoore, did not reveal this detail, it only stated that the article ‘required corrections’ and that this had been submitted.
It was also confirmed that the Secomet study had not been submitted for institutional ethical approval or for approval by the Medicines Control Council (MCC) Clinical Trials Division.
Dent said that Kotwal had been told by Secomet that they had submitted the application to the MCC, but had failed to tell him ‘that the MCC had not come back to them’.
‘Professor Kotwal thought that the submission constituted approval to go ahead,’ Dent said.
Kotwal denied in the statement that he had any financial interest in Secomet or that he had endorsed, championed or promoted any of the products.
Dent said the university had cancelled a royalty agreement it had entered into with Secomet whereby a percentage of the profits would have been ploughed back into laboratory.
In a separate statement UCT Vice-Chancellor Professor Njabulo Ndebele confirmed that Kotwal would remain on leave until the end of the year and that his laboratory remained closed.
He added that the university’s attention to safe laboratory practice had to be reinforced.
‘The case has shown the need for us to ensure that ethical approvals are rigorous and equally that institutional ethical approvals are in place for any work carried out by members of the University in our laboratories,’ said Ndebele.
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