Today is “Rare Disease Day,” 40 yrs aftet Congress created a law to encourage pharmaceutical firms to develop so-called ‘orphan drugs’ to treat small patient populations w/ rare genetic diseases
— Today, half of all new drugs approved by the FDA are orphans
— They are the most expensive, w/ huge profit margins. The orphan market is forecast to double to $66 billion in the next decade
In “Billion-Dollar Orphans,” chp 50 of my book, PHARMA, I expose how drug companies have learned to game the Orphan Law