Also, Prof. Maurice Iwu, a member of that committee has for the first time since the Ebola virus found its way into the country, spoken about his famed bitter kola for Ebola virus experiment. He spoke exclusively and extensively to Guardian Newspapers.
He explained: “It is wrong to call bitter kola a cure or actually any other medication right now as a cure. I don’t know whether there is anybody who claims there is a cure yet for Ebola. But what has happened is that in 1999, 15 years ago, we did research where we found that component of Garcinia kola called kolaviron was able to inhibit the growth of Ebola. “Before then there was not to my knowledge any other compound that shows such promise, so we were excited about it at the time. It was part of our study into emerging diseases, things you can call frontier science. We were more interested in things like Marburg fever disease, Ebola disease, Lassa fever diseases that are caused by viruses. We were also interested in drug-resistant malaria and at that time malaria was getting resistant to chloroquine.
“Remember it was 15 years ago, what we then did was in terms of prioritisation, malaria was more important to us. But we have crossed the malaria bridge and we are looking at other cutting-edge science. I have a laboratory at Nsukka, private lab. I think it is the oldest privately-owned research laboratory. I am sure in Sub-Saharan Africa. So we were able to show that it does inhibit the replication of the virus at very low concentration against the later dose that can kill a cell, which was much higher, several folds higher and that was for us exciting.”
“So I get amused when people say after all since 1999 he didn’t do anything. Why should I do something about Ebola? My job is to show a discovery that this thing is effective. Beyond that, it is supposed to be a governmental effort. Everywhere in the world no company, no individual has worked on Ebola without massive government’s support. In our own case, instead of passing judgment I think what we should do is to start looking at where you can pick up where Professor Iwu left 15 years ago.”
Asked whether he was willing to deploy the drug now if asked to, Iwu said: “I am not waiting to be asked, I accepted to serve in the committee, I have also started talking to my colleagues and more or less reactivated all the networks I have at the time including the United States National Institutes for Health (NIH), colleagues at Water Bridge, the United States Army where I was working, colleagues who are also in the private sector, in the industry in America, here in Nigeria. We have reactivated such networks with a view to continuing the work with or without government, I must say.”
On how far the bitter kola drug development has gone and whether people could access the drug now, Iwu said: “Yes we do have a product called Garcinia IHP. My company is a research group that we have had since 25 years ago. We have been in business just doing cutting-edge research. We are not the most profitable venture but that is not our motivation. Our motivation is that we enjoy what we are doing. We are scientists and we are doing it as a professional calling.
“Garcinia IHP is being marketed and listed under the National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) as a product for immune boosting. The interesting thing about viruses is that there are two ways you can attack them. Either you attack the virus by using anti-viral agents or you also can attack the virus by strengthening the body’s own immune system. The two can be complementary. We are not asking anybody that we are prescribing Garcinia as a cure but we do have a product called Garcinia IHP.
“There is the kolaviron, a compound from Garcinia, which incidentally I identified not for its antiviral properties but for the ability to protect the liver against toxins and this was done as far back as 1985. I will give you a paper, which we did in Experiencia. Experiencia is a cutting-edge work in this area. In 1985, what we did was to observe its use in a clinical setting, in a traditional ethno-medical setting. Having established that we now went to the lab and challenged the rats with falloedine, which kills 100 per cent the rats that were challenged. Falloedine is poison from a mushroom called the death cap, because of the way it kills, that is why it is called death cap. It looks like a cap and it is deadly.
“But this compound was able to stop the poison. I went on to identify the compound responsible and publish the structure. That structure I published, 30 years after, people are still using it as structure of kolaviron. Kolaviron now has been worked on by 78 different publications attesting to its wide-ranging activity. What is surprising about kolaviron is that it actually inhibits a lot of biological signaling and that makes it an object of serious investigation as a possible aid in the management of viral diseases.
“I say management because nobody has done a clinical study, which we want to verify. It is also interesting that Nigerians who were able to applaud the work of Zmap, a drug that has not been tested in human beings before, a drug that we cannot say has gone through phase three clinical trials, they didn’t want to give any chance to a substance they were familiar with, that their grandfathers have been using. That shows me that something is really wrong psychologically with our mindset.”
On his advice to government on how to take the bitter kola drug to the next level, Iwu said: “I am advising government and passing it through the committee. It will go directly to the minister and he will act. Recommendations are made regularly.
“But on Garcinia kola, the analogy I gave is like this: If an armed robber is said to be attacking your neighbourhood, two things you can do: You may have enough weapons to go out and lay ambush and fire the person. If your own weapon is higher you overpower the person.
“But woe betide you if he has a superior weapon, he will be very angry and will come at you with ferocity. So also the other option of going to your house, locking your door, and if you have enough time putting bullet proof, that is a defensive approach. In 2000, I wrote a letter in Lancet, a medical journal that medical doctors worldwide read. I raised a theoretical paper and I was arguing that medicine has to find a way and try to be open to other methods of achieving treatment. It is not just enough to talk about drugs, the disease model. You also have to talk about the cellular model in which the approach will be to strengthen the cells, the organs to be able to fight diseases on their own.
“I am not saying that there are no conditions where you use chemotherapy or drugs. I am a pharmacognocist and the training is based on that ability for compounds to add but you also have to give chance for the possibility of strengthening the body’s own defence mechanism. It is an ongoing dialogue and people have embraced it more and more that certain diseases are better handled in this dualistic model of approach. Some say it is holistic but I think holistic sounds a little vague.
“For bitter kola the beauty of it is that it is a known anti-hepatoxic agent, it protects the liver, there is no doubt about that. The works of so many researchers have shown that. Two, it is also known to affect biochemical pathways and those biochemical pathways are relevant in the disease we are talking about. Three is that we have a product that is standardised to its content of kolaviron that is in the market.
“So it is question of personal health choice. You saw me chewing bitter kola when you walked in because I knew I was coming to Lagos and I have to have protection. I also have the capsules of Garcinia IHP to be able to help my system withstand the situation.”
As a member of the National Ebola Committee, he was asked to comment on the drug that was used on one of the doctors who have been discharged and declared free of Ebola virus. Iwu said: “I don’t know. You have to ask the nation’s doctor. We have a professor of medicine and that is why I have tremendous respect for him. You have to ask him. I have to use this opportunity to say that I am so impressed by the work done by the Lagos State government. They have done a fantastic job, the collaboration that they are having with the Federal Government is commendable and also to say that we shouldn’t think that because we are not seeing a magic bullet approach, the nation is not working. Our response so far is so good. “
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