Opinion: As it turns 40, the Orphan Drug Act for rare diseases needs a refresh

This month marks the 40th anniversary of the Orphan Drug Act. Since it was signed into law in 1983, the FDA has approved more than 1,100 treatments for rare diseases. The act also created an industry that didn’t exist in the United States before its enactment, enabling the formation of companies to develop and commercialize therapies for rare diseases.

That said, a lot has changed in science and drug development since 1983. The human genome was sequenced in 2003. It is now possible to treat diseases with gene therapy, antisense oligonucleotides, messenger RNA (mRNA), noncoding RNA (known as small interfering RNA, or siRNA), and other gene-based modalities. New ways of conducting clinical trials have also emerged.

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