Orphan

Shortly after L and I discussed the incident related to the Duke of cosmetic industry, I had the rare opportunity of visiting Aberdeen thrice in two days.

(No, not a enjoyable experience - at least not for someone with autistic personality disorder who works in the New Territory and lives in Kowloon east.)

I shall not explain why I had to go there that frequently, or what happened on those two days. Nonetheless, the oration during the College dinner in the second evening really intrigued me.

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The idea of the talk was simple: There are many rare diseases - what we call orphan diseases - that do not attract much attention and medical research is badly needed in these areas. Although the incidence is low and drug companies often do not have much incentive to develop treatment, effective drugs could prove highly profitable.

The example cited in the talk was Gaucher's disease. (For visitors without a medical background, don't be disappointed if you know nothing about this disease - we physicians are hardly any better.) Although the disease is rare, the first effective drug for this problem - imiglucerase - made a revenue of US$1800 million in 2009.

Rosy future for medical research, eh?