Mirko Beljanski


Mirko Beljanski was a French-Serbian molecular biologist, notable in the latter part of his career for devising and promoting a number of ineffective cancer treatments, and for treating French president François Mitterrand with them.
Beljanski was found guilty of medical malpractice in 1994. Both he and Mitterrand subsequently died of cancer.

Career

Beljanski was born in 1923 in Yugoslavia. He came to France to study, and lived there for the rest of his life. He was married to Monique Lucas, daughter of :fr:René Lucas|René Lucas and granddaughter of :fr:Pauline Ramart|Pauline Ramart. He received a PhD in 1948 from the University of Paris. In 1948, he entered the CNRS and worked at the Pasteur Institute in Paris as a researcher in molecular biology. Beljanski was made to leave the Pasteur Institute in 1978, after pursuing research against the advice of the institute, but still continued to publish scientific papers. He was at the Faculty of Pharmacy of Châtenay-Malabry until his retirement in 1988.
Beljanski believed he had found antivirals effective against cancer and AIDS. A product made from extracts of the Brazilian Pao pereira tree and called PB100 was claimed to be superior to AZT, which Beljanski called "real poison". Customers included François Mitterrand. There was never any evidence that any of the products Beljanski promoted were effective medicine; the French Department of Health accused him of illegally practicing medicine in 1991, and he was found guilty of malpractice in 1994. In 2002, the European court of human rights ruled that the length of a second criminal investigation had been excessive and made a financial award to his widow.

Death

Beljanski died from cancer in Paris on 27 October 1998.