Cape Town — The Medicines Control Council (MCC) was in a state of collapse and its inefficiency was jeopardising clinical trials of important HIV/AIDS drugs because of the possibility of the University of Cape Town losing its funding, Democratic Alliance health spokesman Mike Waters said yesterday.

Waters said that the clinical trial being placed at risk was for selenium supplementation for AIDS patients, which studies suggested might postpone the onset of full-blown AIDS .

"The Democratic Alliance calls on the minister of health, as part of her efforts to improve the efficiency of our health system, to demand an improvement plan from MCC chairperson Prof Peter Eagles and registrar of medicines Mandisa Hela, and to remove them should they fail to produce one."

Waters said the project might lose its funding because it could not get approval from the MCC to go ahead.

"In the 18 months since the application was made, faxes and e-mails have never been answered," he said.

"The 18-month wait (thus far) for approval compares dismally to the average 14-day approval time for clinical trials in 1997; this despite a trebling of the MCC's budget and a doubling of staff numbers in 2001," Waters said.

Attempts to get comment from the MCC were unsuccessful.