Orphan Drug Act of 1983

There are not many drugs available to treat rare diseases. Pharmaceutical companies don't usually invest tremendous amounts of money in drug research and development for rare diseases. So, the Orphan Drug Act of 1983 gives pharmaceutical companies several reasons to focus at least some of their R&D on drugs that can be used to treat or cure rare diseases. These drugs may not directly generate a lot of revenue or profit for pharmaceutical companies, but there are other benefits. I'm Dr. Joseph Chaiwhan Kim and I'm writing about rare diseases and the Orphan Drug Act.