HAS THE ORPHAN DRUG ACT HELPED?
The Orphan Drug has been in effect for almost twenty years, has it successfully enticed the pharmaceutical companies to develop treatments for rare disease? Has the change been significant? Statistically, there are more orphan drugs being produced since the inception of the Act as well as an increase in funding for orphan drug programs. This growth is evident in the fact that the Office of Orphan Products Development (OPD) has grown from five staff members to a total of nineteen.[46] The funds available in the grants program also increased from $500,000 given in 1983 to $9 million given in 1993.[47] Two bills have recently passed that would double funding to the research grant program and would also formally establish the National Institutes of Health Office of Rare Diseases.[48] One of these bills provides $25 million per year over the next fours years to the orphan drug research program and the other will authorize another $20 million each year for a period of the same four years to
