Pile of colorful pills in blister packs

The Age of Orphans

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By Sarah Rickwood

The 2020s are the age of orphan medicines.

Orphan medicines are available for a larger number of diseases and patients than ever before, a testament to the success of legislation established decades ago encouraging the development of these medicines in both the U.S. and European Union.

Orphan medicines were the majority of European Medicines Agency (EMA) approvals for the first time ever in 2016 (59%) and the majority of U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals for the first time ever in 2018 (58%).

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person cuts salami sausage on a wooden cutting board.

Tackling Salami Slicing and Indication Stacking in Orphan Drug Innovation Incentives

Join the author on Friday, September 17, 2021 for the 2021 CeBIL Symposium. Register here!

By Sven Bostyn

The development of orphan drugs, so named for the rare diseases they treat, has been incentivized through regulation in the European Union. The primary reward is 10 years’ market protection (or exclusivity).

But are these incentive mechanisms working as they should? To date, only 131 orphan drugs have been brought to market. Findings from the European Commission’s long-awaited evaluation of the orphan drug system in Europe, 20 years after its inception, suggest there may be cause for concern.

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