Forbes. How The Odd Couple's Jack Klugman Helped Create The Biotech Industry

http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/201...r=yahootix

Jack Klugman, the actor famous as Oscar from “The Odd Couple” and the crusading medical examiner from the socially conscious “Quincy, M.E.,” died on Christmas Eve, according to The New York Times. He was 90. It’s no exaggeration to say that in the latter role he forever changed the drug business and helped set the stage for the biotechnology industry that was just then emerging.

Cue Times scribe Bruce Weber:

A 1981 episode, about a young man with Tourette’s syndrome, drew attention to so-called orphan drugs, medications that drug companies ignore as unprofitable because the conditions they treat are relatively rare. The House Subcommittee on Health and Environment invited Mr. Klugman to Washington to testify on the issue.

“How many cries before they get heard?” Mr. Klugman said of those with rare disorders. “We are not talking about orphan drugs; we’re talking about orphan people.”

via  Jack Klugman, Stage and Screen Actor, Is Dead at 90 – NYTimes.com .

The passage of the Orphan Drug Act in 1983 made it financially worthwhile for drug companies to chase treatments for disorders like multiple sclerosis, rare cancers, even rare genetic disease. These treatments became a mainstay of the nascent biotechnology industry, which started with the founding of Genentech in 1976. Without the Orphan Drug Act, there would probably be no Biogen Idec, no Genzyme, Alexion Pharmaceuticals. In the words of the National Organization for Rare Disorders, which issued a statement on the occasion of Klugman’s death:

Jack Klugman touched the lives of millions of Americans through his support for what ultimately became the  Orphan Drug Act of 1983.  By portraying on his Quincy, M.E. television show the plight of patients who have rare diseases with no treatment, Mr. Klugman focused a spotlight on the need for incentives to encourage the development of medical therapies for small patient populations.  He did this in partnership with patients and patient advocates who had been unable to gain national attention until he lent his support.

In 1993, Mr. Klugman told a Chicago Tribune interviewer that his interest in the Quincy TV show stemmed partly from the fact that it allowed him to do important shows on important topics — not just to entertain.  By airing two episodes on the need for treatments for people with rare diseases, he addressed a very important public health challenge.

Mr. Klugman’s death comes just one week before the start of the 30th anniversary year of the  Orphan Drug Act and the establishment of NORD to represent rare disease patients and patient organizations.  NORD will always remember him as one of the best friends the rare disease patient community has ever had.