Cancer Drug’s Creator Acquitted of Contempt

HOUSTON —  A doctor accused of ignoring a judicial order to stop selling a non-approved cancer drug was found not guilty Tuesday by a federal jury.

The verdict likely ended 14 years of legal battles in which Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski fended off dozens of federal charges linked to the sale of “antineoplastons,” a drug he created from human and animal urine.

Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski, 54, smiled upon hearing the verdict, and some of his patients applauded in the courtroom and wiped away tears.

“It’s the end of 14 years of war. It’s a great day for us,” Burzynski told reporters.

His trial was on a single count of contempt alleging that he violated 1983 and 1984 court orders barring him from shipping his experimental treatment outside Texas.

Burzynski’s problems had begun when he started selling the drug without Food and Drug Administration approval.

Now it is being tested under FDA guidelines, but its efficacy is not known. Burzynski’s patients, convinced of the drug’s ability to heal, have rallied to his side throughout the legal fight, and they applauded as he left the courthouse after the verdict.

“It means medical freedom for all of us,” Mary Jo Siegel of Pacific Palisades, Calif., said of the verdict. She said she began taking antineoplastons in 1992 after other doctors told her she would die shortly of cancer. She is now cured.

The Polish-born physician has said that antineoplastons, which he discovered in human urine and now makes synthetically, serve as biochemical switches that “turn off” cancer genes.

Burzynski was tried earlier this year on 75 counts of fraud, unauthorized drug sales and contempt of court, but a jury in February deadlocked, 6-6, on whether to convict. All but the contempt charge were dismissed or dropped before the latest trial, which began May 20.

Burzynski’s lawyers portrayed him as a victim of government persecution and declared the not-guilty verdict a victory for those opposed to government intrusion.

But federal prosecutor Mike Clarke said the government’s concern was for the patients taking an unproven drug.

“We didn’t want a pound of flesh. We just wanted accountability,” he said.