orphan drugs

Orphan drugs, drugs intended to prevent, diagnose or treat rare diseases/disorders, are huge sellers for the pharmaceutical industry. NPR, citing data from EvaluatePharma, noted that seven of the 10 best-selling drugs in the United States throughout 2015 were given an orphan drug status. The main...

It has been more than three decades since the U.S. Congress passed a bill encouraging pharmaceutical companies to develop new drugs to treat rare diseases. According to NPR, President Ronald Reagan's Orphan Drug Act of 1983 resulted in more than 200 companies introducing 450 orphan drugs to the...