User blog comment:Fiery Phoenix/Today's Cerberus News: A Possible Cure for Thane?/@comment-730941-20100714095701

Very good point - I didn't make that association when I read it before...

That being said though, this is a cure for respiratory diseases caused by inhaling dust, while Thane's illness is caused by the drying-out of his organs (not just his lungs, according to the article). I'm not saying it couldn't help, but it would be a bit of a cop-out if Bioware built up his illness so much in ME2 only to solve it through some kind of deus ex machina (i.e. miracle cure) that conveniently happens between the two games.

One thing strikes me though, the comment at the end: "within a year, the whole galaxy will be using these things". Given the other references to a year we've seen in ME2 (e.g. a year for the Alliance/EDI to decode the stolen Cerberus files, a year for the quarian scientists to gather info on dark energy, I think), this could be a subtle hint to the timescale of the next game.