How can pharmaceutical companies benefit from the development of drugs for rare diseases?

Source: Biovalley 2016-10-26 in recent years, pharmaceutical companies can bring the next 10 for discovery The focus of billion dollar drugs seems to have shifted from drugs for common diseases to new drugs for rare diseases In a recently published research paper, researchers found that legislation to encourage pharmaceutical companies to invest in the development of rare diseases may bring profits to these companies, which is also the future of multiple pharmaceutical companies The company has a new field in drug research Bestselling drugs often rely on a large number of prescriptions The heartburn therapy drug Losec is the trademark of omeprazole, which has brought us $6 billion in revenue to Astra as of 2000 The drug atorvastatin (Lipitor), developed by Pfizer to reduce body cholesterol, also brings us 120 per year With a revenue of US $100 million, the cumulative sales volume of the drug has reached US $131 billion by 2011 However, the unit price of the drug is not low, and the cost per patient per day is US $2 By contrast, the business model of pharmaceutical companies has gradually shifted to focus on rare diseases Pharmaceutical companies have to deal with lower prescription volume with higher drug unit price to ensure their investment income, so why does it change? Rare diseases are often ignored by many pharmaceutical companies, which led to the orphan drug act of 1983 ）In the United States, at the same time, the European Parliament has also negotiated and formulated regulations on the management of rare disease drugs Of course, there are other relevant regulations around the world These regulations undoubtedly stimulate many pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs for rare diseases, which is also called orphan drugs These incentives include seven years of market monopoly in the United States, ten years of market power in Europe (perhaps longer in pediatric use), as well as reductions or waivers of regulatory fees and tax credits; so far, these policies have been very successful, and since the entry into force of U.S law, the FDA has approved more than 500 There are fewer than 10 drugs for rare diseases in the first 10 years Original details: http://news.bioon.com/article/6691693.html