ZAMRA Warns Public Against Buying Bogus AIDS Cure

The Zambia Medicines Regulatory Authority (ZAMRA) has warned members of the public against buying a pseudoscientific drug called GAMMORA, which claims to be a cure to HIV/AIDS.

ZAMRA’s Senior Public Relations Officer Christabel Iliamupu said the drug has not been safety tested or authorised by the authority. 

She said she was concerned with the repeated advertisements for GAMMORA on social media, clarifying that only medicines which have received ZAMRA authorisation can be marketed or sold in Zambia. 

Ms Iliampu added she was worried that despite multiple arrests and prosecutions of those involved in selling GAMMORA, the drug continues to be advertised and sold in Zambia. 

GAMMORA was initially synthesised by Israeli biotech firm Zion Medical in 2018, when it was hailed as a “potential cure” to HIV/AIDS. However, subsequent research has debunked this claim, showing that, although the medicine is effective at reducing a patient’s viral load, it does not destroy all cells carrying the HIV virus-genome. 

Commenting on the hype surrounding GAMMORA at the time, Prof. Francois Venter of the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa said, “the HIV world has seen quackery in different forms for decades - sadly this smacks of more of it”.