After a chance meeting with Nigerian officials, Xechem has opened one of the most state-of-the-art pharmaceutical plants in Africa. The factory churns out Nicosan, the first non-toxic treatment for sickle-cell anemia, a disease that afflicts about 16 million individuals primarily of African descent worldwide.

For his work, he has been awarded the Reader's Choice CBS/MarketWatch CEO Of The Year award, and immortalized in a song written by Martin Luther King Jr.'s niece. But despite all this, he says, there is still more work to be done.

Q: How did you end up working on drugs for orphan diseases?

A: I was working at Abbott Laboratories, working on antibiotics and cancer treatments that cost $3 million, $4 million or $5 million per kilogram. Then I was approached by a company called Lyphomed to help them develop a generic version of the drug vancomycin (an antibiotic used to treat severe infections). The only company making the drug was Eli Lilly, and their patent had been expired for five years. Nobody in China, India, anywhere, was making the drug.

I wasn't sure at first if I could make the drug, but after three and a half years we developed a version. We founded Xechem and the charter was to make drugs not available anywhere else on the market. We put our generic into production in Copenhagen and Japan. We made our money back in less than two weeks. My entire life changed.

Q: You bought out Xechem from its parent company in 1990, but as the company prepared for its first public offering, an untimely patent extension granted to another firm sent the stock into freefall. Can you describe your meeting with a Nigerian delegation in search of a sickle-cell anemia drug that turned things around for you?

A: Until that time, I had no idea what sickle-cell disease was. I overheard someone from the delegation saying 'We have a drug for sickle-cell disease but nobody wants to put up money.' I said, 'I want it.' At the time, there was no non-toxic drug for the disease. The Nigerians said 'Westerners come here, take things and never come back. Can you set up a factory here?' I went to Nigeria and saw there was a lot of opportunity there. I agreed to build a factory.

We are currently marketing the drug in Nigeria and we plan to bring the drug to the United States -- where 80,000 people have sickle-cell anemia -- to increase its credibility.

Q: Most of the attention goes to efforts to donate drugs to people in low-income countries. But you have built a successful model based on selling to the Nigerian market. How does it work?

A: Nigeria has a population of 130 million people. Like in every country, there are rich and poor people. It is very cheap to manufacture things there, and many people can afford to buy the treatment.

Right now, the problem is that demand for the drug is greater than what we can produce. Other countries have sent delegations to tour our factory.

Especially when the government is in the picture, I think it makes a lot of sense to develop things in those countries. We are making history. I think there's a tremendous opportunity to help people.

Q: What is it like to operate in Nigeria?

A: People have a very bad image of Nigeria and other African countries; we've helped to change that. If you come there, you can see that what we have built is as good as anywhere else. People will change their impression and say yes, things can be done in these countries.

One problem we have encountered is that often, once people are trained, they leave. We have decided to start classes at Nigerian universities to ensure a supply of trained workers.

(These countries) are looking for people like us who can help build. Criticism won't help anybody get anywhere.

Q: Where do you plan to market the drug next?

A: We expect sales of between $240 million and $288 million per year in Nigeria in the next three to five years. Then we plan to market the drug in all African countries because there are no other drugs on the market. We also have orphan drug status in the United States and the European Union.

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