Although it is cold hard fact that most of our medical research is based on selling drugs to patients its the under represented and under funded so-called Orphan Diseases that get my hackles up.
An orphan disease is any disease in the United States with less than 100,000 people who are affected by it. Unfortunately societal scourges like cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's, and diabetes have victims in the millions to tens of millions. This doesn't make the financial or emotional impact of children another disease any less just because they are a small class.
The fact we continue to monetize the importance of someone's disease is something I wish we could rise above. Most research done in these areas becomes self funded by the families afflicted. I have high hopes that breakthroughs in basic biology research and genetics will bring down the costs of research and fill in the puzzles making these disease no longer orphans but lower hanging fruit.
