5 Sue Hospital for Its Role in AIDS Drug Experiments : North Hollywood: The L.A. men contend fees were cut to lure them to undergo surgery so they could take an unapproved potion.

Five AIDS victims have sued a North Hollywood hospital for allegedly taking part in an “unethical experiment” conducted on them by a former Orange County radiologist seeking human test data to help him market a phony AIDS cure.

The men allege in lawsuits filed this month that the Medical Center of North Hollywood slashed its fees as a lure for them to undergo surgery so they could take a potion called Viroxan, which was never approved by government regulators and has no proven value in combatting AIDS.

According to the suits, dozens of AIDS patients had catheters surgically implanted in their chests in “assembly line” fashion at the 182-bed medical center. The catheters allowed patients to take the chemical intravenously to treat AIDS at home.

The suits charge the hospital with fraud, negligence, conspiracy and other offenses.

The men are seeking damages of more than $8 million apiece from the hospital and several other defendants, said Los Angeles attorney Raymond L. Henke, who represents all five plaintiffs.

Henke said the medical center was not motivated by profit.

Instead, he said, administrators may have believed that Viroxan had some clinical promise.

“If it ever came true that this Podunk hospital in the Valley was where a major product for AIDS was developed, that would bring them enormous prestige,” Henke said.

But “someone over there did something enormously stupid” and the hospital wound up participating in medical and scientific fraud, he said.

Sherry Reese, director of marketing and public affairs for the medical center, said officials there would have no comment until attorneys have reviewed the suits.

The lawsuits mark the first legal effort to link the medical center with the inventor of the AIDS potion, former Orange County radiologist Stephen D. Herman, who is also a defendant.

According to state medical investigators, Herman formulated the substance in a kitchen sink without proper sterility controls.

He later sold it without clearance from state or federal drug regulators, officials said.

Herman, 55, who is disabled and has not practiced medicine full time since 1984, voluntarily surrendered his medical license last summer after state prosecutors agreed to drop civil charges of gross negligence, incompetence and dishonesty in connection with Viroxan.

He still faces criminal charges in Orange County of falsely advertising and selling Viroxan, allegations he has denied.

Herman’s lawyer, Andrew Lloyd, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

In the past, Lloyd has said that while Herman “may not have been the most astute researcher,” he tried to develop a genuinely effective treatment for acquired immune deficiency syndrome after one of his sons contracted the lethal disease.

Also named as defendants in the lawsuits are Dr. Rajindra Sethi, a surgeon who performed catheter implants at the hospital, and Valentine Birds, a former North Hollywood doctor who administered Viroxan to some of his patients.

Birds had his license revoked last month in the first such action against a California doctor for AIDS quackery.

State officials said Birds gave Viroxan to seven AIDS sufferers, including four who later died.

Sethi could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Birds’ attorney, Gene Girard, said Birds was not guilty of any wrongdoing.

He said Birds believed Viroxan “had some benefit” because Herman told him there was some positive test data on the substance.

Birds injected Viroxan into patients only to show them the proper sterile technique for doing so, Girard said.

According to the lawsuits, the doctors conspired with the medical center to persuade AIDS patients that Viroxan was safe and effective against the virus although the defendants knew it was untested.

Henke said that rather than improve the men’s health, the catheter operations and Viroxan infusions exposed them to dangerous infections and wasted time they could have used to be treated with drugs known to have some value in slowing AIDS, such as AZT.

Although the medical center usually charged $3,500 for a catheter procedure, Henke said, it cut the fees to about $1,100 for the men.

Henke said that as many as six men a day underwent catheter surgery at the hospital, and that the patients received little on no instruction on how to keep their catheters clean and sterile.

It is unknown how many people underwent the procedure.

Henke said his clients developed heart damage, blood poisoning, meningitis and other problems as a result of Viroxan.

The plaintiffs in the suits are James Looney, Rudolph Laubscher, Timothy Johnson, Herbert Dreiwitz and Roderick Garcia, all from Los Angeles.

According to the suits, Herman hoped to use Viroxan patients to gather “superficially plausible” test data showing that Viroxan had promise.

He wanted the data to persuade investors and drug companies that the chemical could be profitable, the suits said.

Lloyd, Herman’s attorney, has said that Viroxan is now being tested in Kenya and that preliminary results are “very, very encouraging.”

The substance is still available for sale in Mexico, he said.