But before 1983, there were just 38 orphan drugs approved for use in the United States.
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Insurers may want to avoid negative publicity and will pay for orphan drugs, assuming patient populations remain small.
New orphan drugs are just one of the reasons that individuals with hard-to-treat diseases have reason to hope.
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Medicines to treat many of these conditions are within reach, but because they are seldom profitable, these "orphan drugs" have been systematically neglected by pharmaceutical companies.
In recent months, a growing number of so-called orphan drugs, which are used to treat so-called rare diseases that afflict small patient populations, have won FDA approval.
The compound annual growth rate of the orphan drug market between 2001 and 2010 was 25.8 percent, compared with 20.1 percent for a matched control group of non-orphan drugs.
Drug companies should be rewarded for developing orphan drugs.
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He is trying to convince the commission's budget keepers to come up with the extra money for orphan drugs and hopes for a compromise by June, in which case the legislation can pass to the European Parliament for approval, and be adopted by member states in 2000.
An earlier version of the drug, Ceredase, helped launch the lucrative market for high-priced orphan disease drugs, which is now one of the brightest spots in biotech.
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However, developing successful drugs for orphan diseases is not, of course, a slam dunk.
Biomarin (nasdaq: BMRN - news - people ) and Alexion (nasdaq: ALXN - news - people ) have launched drugs for orphan diseases.
Biomarin and Alexion have launched drugs for orphan diseases.
As a result, the U.S. government offers special monopolies for drugs that treat orphan diseases.
Medical devices are something of an orphan sister to the glamour of drugs, but they include some of the genuine miracles of modern medicine: pacemakers, artificial joints, cardiac stents, scanners, and radiotherapy machines.
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Moreover, drugs for such "orphan" diseases can be priced at tens of thousands of dollars a year or more--a fact that has been proven again and again by biotechs like Genzyme that focus on rare diseases.
Moreover, drugs for such "orphan" diseases can be priced at tens of thousands of dollars a year or more--a fact that has been proven again and again by biotechs like Genzyme (nasdaq: GENZ - news - people ) that focus on rare diseases.
This compares with 83 of 291 drugs that were not granted orphan status but were also considered to be blockbusters, and this also works out to 29 percent.
Because BioMarin's drugs serve small patient populations, each drug is granted orphan status upon approval, which means exclusivity for seven years in the U.S. Revenues from one drug should eventually throw off enough cash to fund further drug development, figures Yun.
Combined with the increasing number of orphan drug approvals, the data suggests compounded annual growth will outpace other drugs.
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