Pharmaceutical companies wanted big profit margins, and thereby refused to not only share the formulae to hard-hit countries, but also declined to reduce the market price of their therapy, which was way beyond their investment. It was a genocide as HIV/Aids was a global pandemic, and needed collective effort.
It was much later when the first Bush administration – and Dr Mugyenyi actually went and spoke to US Congress to make the case for more ARV support – that these combination drugs would be given cheaply and more affordably to African countries.
Indeed, one can actually make the case that it is for Mugyenyi’s tenacious exploits that even Kampala pharmaceutical industries are able to produce ARVs. I bring this book not to spotlight Europe and North America refusing to giving free vaccines to Africa.