The Institute of Medicine has released a report that calls for a national “War on Rare Diseases”, similar to the 1970’s “War on Cancer”, reports the Wall Street Journal. Rare diseases are those affecting fewer than 200,000 Americans (neurofibromatosis affects an estimated 100,000). As we have reported, in the last couple of years there has been significant progress in devoting resources to rare diseases, by the National Institutes of Health, by the Food and Drug Administration, and even by biotech and pharmaceutical companies. IOM now calls for a ‘national strategy’ to tackle rare diseases. This would be a sea change from the fact that for many years, finding treatments for rare diseases has largely been driven by advocacy groups and foundations like the Children’s Tumor Foundation.
Next: A “War on Rare Diseases”?
