12,000 diseases lack treatments. One doctor thinks generics could yield cures
SAN FRANCISCO — About a decade ago, David Fajgenbaum thought his life was over. He was a young, bright physician hoping to work in oncology in remembrance of his mother, who died of brain cancer a few years earlier. Fajgenbaum was having his last rites read to him, and his family braced for his death from Castleman disease, a rare inflammatory illness that impacts the lymph nodes and can severely damage other organs.
But, in a rare stroke of skill and luck, Fajgenbaum was able to repurpose a generic drug, sirolimus, and go into remission.
