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{
    "id": 917442,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/917442/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 311,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Ongeri",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 124,
        "legal_name": "Samson Kegeo Ongeri",
        "slug": "samson-ongeri"
    },
    "content": "You can rewind those drugs and get a life out of them to make them important, critical and efficacious. For example, when I was the Minister for Health, we had the HIV epidemic at a prevalence rate of 14 per cent. The patented drugs were out of this world in terms of cost. It costed USD1,000 to treat a patient and nobody could afford them. I, therefore, looked at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) treaties and agreements, and in particular the agreement which said that if you have an emergency in a country, you can declare it as such; then that will allow you to import generic drugs. I made a request and Parliament held a session in Mombasa, whereby the only agenda was the HIV pandemic in this country. The average prevalence was 14 per cent then. By the time we reached there, people were asking, “What should we do?” I told them that, one, let us amend the law and go through Article Six of the WTO, Trade Related Activities and import the generic drugs from Brazil, India and Cuba. In fact, Cuba was producing the molecules of HIV/AIDS. We even produce them, and these are the ones which are being brought from there. The prices then dropped from USD1,000 to USD200 and, today, I think they are below USD100. That is why you must study the market of drugs and see whether they have run their course of 10 or 15 years, depending on what potency they had given that drug. You then go for cheaper, but more efficacious drugs that will help our populations."
}