Brink Bio

Anthony Brink is an advocate of the High Court of South Africa and a former district and regional court prosecutor, district and regional court magistrate, and civil court magistrate. He is the national chairman of the Treatment Information Group (TIG), a voluntary association he founded in 2002 to promote research-based public debate on antiretroviral (ARV) drug policy in South Africa.

Brink has been researching and reviewing the clinical and molecular pharmacology literature on the ARV drugs AZT and nevirapine in depth since the mid-nineties, and has written extensively about both drugs.

An early draft of his book Debating AZT (originally subtitled Questions of safety and utility), which he sent to government in mid-1999, prompted President Mbeki to order an enquiry into the drug in Parliament on 28 October that year.

His expertise as an autodidact in the pharmacology of AZT and nevirapine has been recognised worldwide:

Debating AZT: Mbeki and the AIDS drug controversy (Pietermaritzburg: Open Books, 2000) was described by Etienne de Harven MD, Emeritus Professor of Pathology, University of Toronto, Canada, as 'excellent … the best, most comprehensive review on AZT currently available'. Harvey Bialy PhD, founding scientific editor of the leading, widely cited scientific journal Nature Biotechnology (formerly Bio/Technology), called it 'Absolutely spectacular … superb … the definitive refutation'. Peter Duesberg PhD, Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of California at Berkeley and member of the National Academy of Sciences, described it as 'superb, extremely well researched, analyzed, written … I could not have done a better job … Are you a scientist or do you collaborate with one? How could you survey so many scientific publications as an attorney?' To an Indian journalist he remarked: 'I still can’t believe he wrote that. He’s really a molecular biologist pretending to be a lawyer.' All reviews

The foreword to Debating AZT was written by South Africa’s leading investigative journalist, Martin Welz, editor and publisher of Noseweek. His English counterpart at Private Eye, Paul Foot, reckoned it 'Very good, convinced me completely.' Donald Woods likewise: 'Deserves serious treatment. More strength to your arm.'

Following the publication of Debating AZT, Brink published an extensive review of the research literature on the foetal toxicity of AZT in Poisoning our Children: AZT in pregnancy. The Perth Group (Australian biophysicist Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos and colleagues) remarked: 'Quite clearly your knowledge-base in this subject extends far beyond ours.'

The inventor of AZT, Richard Beltz PhD, Professor of Biochemistry at Loma Linda University School of Medicine, California, told Brink he was 'justified in sounding a warning against the long-term therapeutic use of AZT, or its use in pregnant women, because of its demonstrated toxicity and side effects. Unfortunately, the devastating effects of AZT emerged only after the final level of experiments was well underway … Your effort is a worthy one. … I hope you succeed in convincing your government not to make AZT available.'

After reading the first half of his book The trouble with nevirapine on the internet, Dr Jonathan Fishbein, formerly Director of the Office for Policy in Clinical Research Operations, Division of AIDS, US National Institutes of Health, wrote to praise it as 'an expertly written piece about this very dangerous drug'. Fishbein is the top-ranking federal official who blew the whistle on the irredeemably corrupt manner in which the clinical trial HIVNET 012 was conducted in Uganda and how serious adverse events data were suppressed. HIVNET 012 was the study on the basis of which the South African government was ordered by the Constitutional Court to supply nevirapine to pregnant women and their newborn babies. Professor Andrew Herxheimer MB, FRCP, Emeritus Fellow of the UK Cochrane Centre, Oxford, described The trouble with nevirapine as 'an amazing job … brilliantly dissects an avoidable tragedy: how misconceptions and misunderstandings about a new medicine … caused a pointless, costly and toxic mess that still needs clearing up. An important story with lessons for all of us … and readable with it.'

In recognition of his expertise as a self-trained expert in the toxic pharmacology of ARVs, Brink was given co-authorship credit in a major scientific monograph published by Papadopulos-Eleopulos et al. in November 2001: Mother to Child Transmission of HIV and its Prevention with AZT and Nevirapine: A Critical Analysis of the Evidence.

All of Brink’s completed work has been published on the internet in the public interest and can be freely accessed for non-commercial use at www.tig.org.za and on many other websites worldwide. His work has been translated into Russian, Spanish, Italian, French, German, Dutch and Brazilian Portuguese. He has lectured throughout Europe and in Russia.

Anticipating a career in law, Brink took Latin instead of biology at high school, but was tutored extramurally by his grandfather in microbiology, microtechnique and photomicrography to an advanced level. He taught himself chemistry (culminating in home-made high explosives) and had a provisional patent on a gadget he invented at the age of 10.

Brink is a jazz enthusiast who co-founded a jazz club in the late eighties featuring performances by many of South Africa’s leading jazz musicians, built and operated a recording studio, managed a professional African pop group, played in a jazz band, engineered concert hall sound, and wrote jazz concert reviews for the Witness newspaper. World Cinema is a favourite distraction.

Brink’s books are free online in PDF at Open books.

INTERVIEWS

***