Regulators Keep Rare Diseases Open For Business

The cost of rare diseases to patients and society at large is 10 times higher than for many of the biggest mass market diseases combined. With 95% of rare diseases lacking a treatment or cure, there is an economic imperative for policymakers to keep encouraging pharmaceutical companies to develop more orphan drug treatments. In Vivo looks at the US and EU regulatory impetus to keep rare diseases open for innovation. 

Economics of Disease
At a cost 10 times that of mass market illnesses, there is a strong imperative to keep incentivizing rare drug development • Source: Shutterstock

Roughly 95% of rare diseases lack a treatment or cure. While that is a stark fact that most of the 60 million patients with rare diseases in the US and EU face every day, society writ large also pays a dear price.

An analysis by Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A. estimated that the combined cost of rare diseases is ten times higher...

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