Here's How Rare Diseases Are Becoming Too Common

It is hard to make money treating rare diseases. There simply aren’t enough customers to generate many profits. That’s why the U.S. government passed the Orphan Drug Act in 1983, a law which created a series of incentives to encourage drug companies to develop treatments for rare or “orphan” diseases–conditions affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the U.S. Thanks to longer patent protection, tax reductions and fee waivers, the orphan drug industry has become quite profitable.