Rare Disease Drugs Have Become Uncommonly Rich Monopolies
More than 30 years ago, Congress overwhelmingly passed a landmark health bill aimed at motivating pharmaceutical companies to develop new drugs for people whose rare diseases had been ignored.
By the drugmakers' calculations, the markets for such diseases weren't big enough to bother with.
But lucrative financial incentives created by the Orphan Drug Act signed into law by President Reagan in 1983 succeeded far beyond anyone's expectations.
By the drugmakers' calculations, the markets for such diseases weren't big enough to bother with.
But lucrative financial incentives created by the Orphan Drug Act signed into law by President Reagan in 1983 succeeded far beyond anyone's expectations.