For months, the doctor had been working with the boy, but without the proper medication to treat 7-year-old Nguyen, he had seen no improvement.

Nguyen, who had been admitted to a children's hospital in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City, was suffering from Wilson's Disease, a genetic disorder that, if left untreated, can cause severe brain damage, liver failure, and death. The disease is largely misunderstood and misdiagnosed in the developing world, and medication is often unavailable or unaffordable.

Hoang Le Phuc, the boy's doctor, knew Nguyen needed a medicine called Cuprimine, manufactured by Aton Pharma, Inc. At a loss, he wrote to Mary Graper, president of Wilson's Disease Association International.

"His disease worsens progressively," he wrote of Nguyen. "Would you be kind enough to provide him with Cuprimine?"

Graper contacted Medical Assistance Programs (MAP) International, a nonprofit agency that partners with Aton to ensure that Cuprimine and other essential medicines Aton produces are distributed to people living in the world's poorest areas.

MAP maintains a supply of Cuprimine readily available in its distribution center at all times so that it may immediately respond to patients suffering from Wilson's Disease.

Michael Nyenhuis, president of MAP International, said MAP's partnership with Aton has been essential in combating the illness.

"It's very important that we act as quickly as possible to halt the progression of this disease," he said. "Aton very generously supplies us with Cuprimine and other medicines to treat rare illnesses so that when we learn of children like Nguyen, we can immediately respond."

The partnership revolves around Aton's International Patient Assistance Program, through which Aton provides people in developing countries with specialized medicines designed to treat rare illnesses. MAP manages the program for Aton and has distributed the products to 18 countries, including Serbia, Saudi Arabia, Moldova, Jordan and Bulgaria.

Though Aton produces medicines designed to treat various illnesses, its medication for Wilson's Disease are the ones most often needed in the developing world.

The disease is named for the British physician Samuel Alexander Kinnier Wilson, who identified and described the illness in 1912. Today it affects about one in every 30,000 people in most parts of the world. Though there is no cure, through proper medication the disease can be controlled.

"That's why it's so very vital that we continue to supply Nguyen and other patients like him with the medication they so desperately need," Nyenhuis said. "We're able to offer them hope, where otherwise they have none."