Yes - I really like the "RLS - Restless Leg Syndrome" thing. Wow! Glad we mobilized the industry on that one! A new thing to obsess about. I'm really glad we got that one nailed, though. Good then, now, on to cancer!
As someone who in fact, has a lot to do with pharma drug research and development, I feel the need to set the record straight.
Usually when a client creates a compound, they develop it with the intent to treat a certain illness/condition/whatever.
Whether it be in animal trials, or in Phase I/II clinical trials, 90% of the time, the drug wont work for what it was intended, but it will be noticed that it has beneficial side effects on certain subjects. For example, Viagra was originally intended to be a blood pressure medication, and then the male subjects in the trial were like "hey look at this!" and then the drug went off on that tangent of research.
Currently my firm is researching a drug for a client that is being tested for three separate conditions: MS, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Crohn's Disease and whats scary, is that its effective on all three.
So this is how we end up getting drugs made for potentially stupid conditions that don't seem like much - however to the people suffering from these "trivial" conditions, these drugs can provide a needed function.
Alright, off soapbox, I've got to carve up some lab data now.
(oh btw, I'd say about 75% of our current trials we have running are oncology trials, very very morbid to work on)
