"Then for children with this disease, to be fully treated, wouldn't it cost eight to nine million?"

Hearing Ms. Liu say this, Wei Wei was somewhat shocked and also found it hard to believe why a shot of this medicine could cost more than 500,000.

After all, in her understanding, with technological advancements, drugs that were initially very expensive are now being mass-produced and have become much cheaper.

Take penicillin for example, which was as precious as gold a hundred years ago, but now its production cost is just a few cents.

"Yes, the special drug for treating Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Nusinersen, is incredibly expensive. And 500,000 is the current price; when Nusinersen first entered our country, it cost a million per dose."

Zhao Heng nodded as well. He hadn't expected Ms. Liu to be particularly concerned about children with Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Yet, this group of patients differs from other patients.

For those children suffering from Spinal Muscular Atrophy, to put it bluntly, their only hope for survival is money—only by having enough money to buy Nusinersen can they have a chance at life. It's truly cruel.

With nearly ten million in treatment costs, how many families can bear such a burden?

"Indeed, many families of affected children have to sell everything they own to scrape together just the first year's treatment costs. By the second and third year, there's really nothing more they can do. Even for aid groups like ours, when faced with such high medical expenses, our efforts are quite limited."

Ms. Liu expressed her feelings deeply.

"Dr. Zhao, I feel that given your deep achievements in cancer treatment, with some lateral thinking, if you could develop an affordable and effective drug for treating Spinal Muscular Atrophy, it would be a true blessing for the tens of thousands of affected children."

After pausing for a moment, Ms. Liu spoke casually to Zhao Heng.

"Ms. Liu, you overestimate me. Nusinersen was developed by a foreign pharmaceutical company spending billions of US Dollar. My individual capability possibly can't compare with such a gigantic pharmaceutical company."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Heng shook his head slightly. In modern society, each new drug costs billions of US Dollar for development—this has been proven by the Beautiful Country.

Thus, domestically, many people opt not to waste effort on developing new drugs. Instead, there's a craze for concocting traditional prescriptions or secret medicines, claiming to extract something from some materials—the atmosphere around drug development is quite poor.

Take Zhao Heng for instance; at best, he is an ultimate fusion of skills and experiences across the various departments of Eastern Hospital. His knowledge and skill breadth are undoubtedly sufficient, but developing new drugs requires delving into biology and even genetics, areas in which he has only acquired a skill, Cell Fate Regulation, from Professor Li Hongwei.

Evidently, targeting Spinal Muscular Atrophy, an autosomal recessive genetic disease, requires world-class expertise in genetics and biology, along with several years to develop a special medication.

Even Zhao Heng's most impressive scholar acquaintance, Professor Li Hongwei, lacks this ability, and Zhao Heng believes no scientist in the world can independently develop such a special drug.

Simply put, this isn't a task a single person can accomplish.

"Dr. Zhao, I believe in your potential; though it's impossible now, it may not be in the future. If you're interested in researching this area, I can fund you."

Ms. Liu certainly knows that currently, Zhao Heng cannot single-handedly develop the new drug that pharmaceutical company spent billions and several years to create.

Yet it doesn't stop her from appreciating Zhao Heng and investing early in a promising talent.

Besides her role as a social aid group leader, she's actually the actual owner of a large investment bank.

"If I reach the required capability in the future, I'll consider it."

Zhao Heng contemplated seriously for a moment and nodded.

Although he has agreed to the idea, the path is extremely long. Not to mention, he's yet to fully acquire the skills and knowledge from Professor Li Hongwei; these great professors and scholars are truly profound.

And to achieve the level that Ms. Liu proposes for developing Nusinersen, according to Zhao Heng's estimation, it would likely require integrating ten scholars like Professor Li Hongwei in both similar disciplines and different research directions to reach that level.

Therefore, it's a daunting task.

Listening to Zhao Heng and Ms. Liu's conversation, Wei Wei sat nearby, touched by their sincerity. In that moment, what they held in their hearts was extremely pure—a simple hope for the emergence of an affordable and effective special drug to relieve the children's suffering.

However, she still felt Ms. Liu was thinking too simplistically. The reason the medicine is so expensive is obviously the pharmaceutical companies aiming to make as much profit as possible, because, as she had learned, the global patent duration for drugs is only 20 years—meaning patent law only protects the developers' economic interests for 20 years; afterwards, other countries can freely replicate it.

With only 20 years to profit, naturally they'll set high prices to maximize earnings.

But it's not surprising that Ms. Liu, from an emotional standpoint, thinks this way.

Ultimately, this world is dominated by interests.

"Yes, Dr. Zhao, I know it's a difficult task, but as long as someone attempts it, it will certainly be realized."

Ms. Liu had approached other doctors before but was met with head shakes—it's a joke, a task for large pharmaceutical companies, not something an individual can finish.

"Actually, if developing medication for all children with Spinal Muscular Atrophy were the goal, my current capacity wouldn't suffice. This requires a deep genetic approach. But the pathological cause of Spinal Muscular Atrophy is the degeneration and inactivation of neurons. If we use stem cell cultivation to nurture individual neural stem cells and inject them into the patient, it should help alleviate symptoms."

Seeing Ms. Liu's demeanor, a sudden inspiration flashed in Zhao Heng's mind, and after a moment of reflection, he spoke.

Not everything needs to be completed in one go; it can be done step by step. In terms of gene therapy drugs, with his current capacity, he naturally can't develop them.

But using neural stem cell cultivation to nurture neural stem cells, thereby alleviating symptoms and extending survival time, he can achieve this.

"Is this method of neural stem cell cultivation expensive?"

Ms. Liu's eyes brightened hearing Zhao Heng's words, she asked.

"The cost of cultivation plus transplantation, for children, would total between a hundred to two hundred thousand."

Zhao Heng estimated and said.

"Then how long could the survival period be extended?"

Urgently, Ms. Liu asked.

"This depends on the individual's onset speed; however, typically for Spinal Muscular Atrophy's onset speed, extending life by five to ten years wouldn't be an issue."

Zhao Heng reflected seriously and spoke.

"Doctor Zhao, can you confirm five to ten years extension?"

Ms. Liu was extremely excited at this point.

Extending life by five to ten years, after those five or ten years, the medicine wouldn't be as expensive anymore.

"Yes."

Zhao Heng confidently nodded.

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