Peter Mugyenyi

Peter Ndimbirwe Mugyenyi is a Ugandan physician, HIV/AIDS researcher, medical administrator and author. He is executive director and co-founder of the Joint Clinical Research Centre, and a leading authority on treatment of HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Early life and education Mugyenyi was born in Rukungiri District in the Western Region of Uganda, circa 1949. He attended Kings College Budo, a mixed, boarding secondary school, before he was admitted to Makerere University to study human medicine. He graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery. Following his studies at Makerere, he had to flee the country in the early 1970s, under the pursuit of Idi Amin’s secret police. He migrated to the United Kingdom, where he obtained the Diploma in Child Health, the title of Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and that of Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. In 2003, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science, by Mbarara University in Uganda.

In September 2003, Mugyenyi was honored by the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care and presented with the Hero in Medicine Award. In February 2014, he was appointed as an independent Director, to the Board of Cipla, the Indian pharmaceutical company with an ARV manufacturing factory in Uganda. He served as the Chancellor of Mbarara University of Science and Technology, one of Uganda's eight public universities from 22 August 2008 to 28 October 2017.

In 2003, Peter Mugyenyi delivered the keynote address at the Ugandan North American Association (UNAA) convention in Boston, Massachusetts.

Authorship Mugyenyi's landmark 2008 book Genocide by Denial: How Profiteering from HIV/AIDS Killed Millions details how Western governments and drug companies callously oversaw the deaths of millions of Africans who would never have been able to afford their branded drugs. A follow-up to the earlier book, A Cure Too Far: The Struggle to End HIV/AIDS, was published in early 2013.

Mugyenyi's role in the battle for mass antiretroviral treatment in Africa is portrayed in the 2013 film Fire in the Blood, and he was invited by the producers to be the guest of honor when the film debuted at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, USA. His appearance generated several standing ovations at Sundance.