Rare Diseases, Extraordinary Aspirations. Highlights from the Society for Medicines Research Symposium, held October 13, 2016 - Covent Garden, London, UK

Abstract

More than 7,000 rare diseases are known that collectively affect some 6-7% of the developed world̕s population. Individually, any single rare disease may only affect a handful of people making them historically a relatively unattractive prospect for the biopharmaceutical industry to target. However, groundbreaking legislation starting with the Orphan Drug Act that was passed in the U.S. in 1983 now provides financial incentives for companies to develop orphan drugs,