Today, the Clinton Foundation is widely known for its work on AIDS in Africa. But as on so many things, Bill Clinton’s attitude toward the African AIDS crisis was starkly different during his time in office.

In the late 1990s, tens of millions of Africans were HIV-positive. Nearly 80 percent of those dying globally of AIDS were in sub-Saharan Africa. AIDS was (and remains to this day) a debilitating scourge. South Africa was suffering acutely from AIDS, and the country had the highest absolute number of people infected.

With an average income of $2,600 per year, few South Africans could afford antiretroviral drug treatment, which cost up to $10,000 annually. Faced with an extraordinary number of AIDS cases, and an impossible cost of treatment, the South African government introduced a measure that would allow for the importation or local production of generic drugs. The law, which paid a fixed fee to patent-holders, would reduce the cost of drugs by up to 90 percent. The legislation was signed into law by Nelson Mandela (whose son would ultimately die of AIDS in 2005).