5 October 2015 - Hair slicked back, white teeth gleaming, Martin Shkreli resembled an extra from The Wolf of Wall Street in an interview on the US network CBS last month.

Smiling into the camera, the 32-year-old former hedge fund manager proceeded to outline a financial manoeuvre even Jordan Belfort — the trader played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2013 film — might think outrageous.

Mr Shkreli planned to increase the selling price of his newly acquired asset, an anti-infective drug called Daraprim often used to treat HIV, by 5000 per cent. He said owners of the product, including Glaxo Smith Kline, had been selling an “Aston Martin at the price of a bicycle”.

In the two weeks since those words were uttered, a storm of political pressure led by Hillary Clinton has forced Mr Shkreli and his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, to reconsider. But the fact that such an enormous rise could even be contemplated illustrates the attraction of owning such speciality drugs.

Pharmaceutical giants have long focused on treatments for mass killers, such as cancer and heart disease. They still do, but now, as patents on blockbuster drugs expire and competition from generic equivalents increases, high-price, high-margin treatments for rare diseases are seen as the best route to growth.

The most lucrative are a group of products, known as orphan drugs, that combat diseases, almost always genetic, suffered by less than 0.05 per cent of the population.

For more details, go to: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/drug-firms-turn-to-orphan-medicines-as-generics-eat-into-profits/story-fn91v9q3-1227556773811