In the fall of 2020, something remarkable happened at the World Congress of Orthopedic Scientists. The entire hall stood and applauded a person on stage: a young student from Malaysia—Siti Aisyah Khalid. She proposed using a unique formula to relieve joint pain and other chronic pain without surgery.
Reporter: Good morning! You’re considered one of the 10 smartest medical students in the world. Why did you decide to study joint diseases?
Siti Aisyah: I really don’t want to talk about this publicly, but the motivation is purely personal. A few years ago, my mother passed away due to a blood infection, after suffering from joint pain for years. During her exams, her joint tissue looked fine, and doctors said not to worry, but sometimes she would complain about joint pain. Over time, the pain worsened, and she was hospitalized and treated continuously, but due to doctor negligence and poor medication, the infection turned into metastasis in her blood. She died quickly from a blood infection. Also, I must mention that my grandmother also died from the same illness. After losing my mother, I started diving into research, and when I discovered these results, I was truly shocked. I realized that the prescribed drugs and medications sold in pharmacies were not only useless but even harmful to the body. Honestly, I wish my mother hadn’t taken those drugs daily!
For the past three years, I’ve focused on a new arthritis pain treatment that everyone is now talking about, which emerged while I was writing my thesis. I knew I had created something new, but I never expected it to attract so much attention from interdisciplinary organizations.
Reporter: Which organizations are interested?
Siti Aisyah: As soon as the article about my new method was published, I started receiving offers to sell the idea. The first was from France, offering 20,000 euros. More recently, an American company offered to buy it for $17 million. I’ve now changed my phone number and stopped using social media because there are dozens of offers every day.
Reporter: But as far as I know, you haven’t sold the formula yet, right?
Siti Aisyah: Of course not. This may sound a bit confusing, but I’m determined to create this product not to get rich. What if I sell this formula abroad? They’ll gain the copyright, then ban others from producing it and raise the price. I may be young, but I’m not naive. After all, if we sell the recipe, our country’s people can’t buy it. A renowned consultant once told me that this product would cost at least $3,000. Who needs that? How can people afford to pay three thousand ringgit?
So, when I received an offer to join nonprofit production, I immediately agreed. I knew there would be an opportunity to work with top consultants. This is really amazing. Currently, the product has undergone clinical trials and is available for public use.