cost of orphan diseases
A decade earlier, only 13 therapies were recognized as orphan treatments. Worldwide sales of orphan drugs amounted to less than $20 billion in 2000, but by 2020 are forecast to cost $176 billion, according to EvaluatePharma, a market research firm. By that year, the money spent on orphan drugs will account for about 19 percent of the worldâs total drug expense. Orphan drugs treat diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 people in the United States and cost an average of $137,000 a year. And treatments for so-called ultra-rare diseases, like the disorder that Synageva targets, generally cost much more.