Legal Challenges To Matthias Rath
A German vitamin-maker and entrepreneur named Matthias Rath publicly questioned the effectiveness of HIV medicines in advertisements in South African newspapers. Rath claims that his nutritional products can cure HIV/AIDS and that antiretroviral medications are toxic. TAC successfully pursued retractions and corrections from the newspapers, and Rath was censured by the South African media control body. TAC has sued the Minister of Health for failing to stop what it claims are Rath's illegal activities, including "conducting unauthorised experiments on people, distributing unregistered medicines and advertising unproven treatments for AIDS." In a unanimous 3 March 2006 decision, the Cape of Good Hope Provincial Division court found in favour of TAC against Rath in a defamation suit. As a result of this decision, Rath may not claim that TAC is a front for the pharmaceutical industry, a "Trojan horse" or "running dog" of that industry, is funded by the pharmaceutical industry, receives funds from pharmaceutical front organisations in return for promoting antiretroviral medicines, or targets poor communities in order to promote the interests of pharmaceutical companies, since the court found no evidence that any of these allegations were true.
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