- About EURORDIS
- About Rare Diseases
- Rare Disease Policy
- Orphan Drugs & Treatments
- What is an orphan drug?
- Promoting orphan drug development
- Orphan drug designation
- Improve the safety of your medicines
- Role of EURORDIS
- Patient advocates involvement
- Access to orphan drugs
- Health technology assessment
- Latest orphan designations and/or marketing authorisations
- EURORDIS Round Table of Companies (ERTC)
- Living with a Rare Disease
- Services to Patients
- Training Resources
- News & Events
About Orphan Drugs
"Orphan drugs" are medicinal products intended for diagnosis, prevention or treatment of life-threatening or debilitating rare diseases. They are "orphans" because the pharmaceutical industry has little interest under normal market conditions in developing and marketing drugs intended for only a small number of patients suffering from very rare conditions.
What is an orphan drug?
"Orphan drugs" are medicinal products intended for diagnosis, prevention or treatment of life-threatening or very serious diseases or disorders that are rare.
Promoting orphan drug development
The growing number of rare diseases awaiting treatment are an important public health issue. Often the scarcity of incentives for drug manufacturers and the lack of...
Orphan drug designation
The first step in the development of any orphan drug is to obtain designation as an Orphan Medicinal Product.
Improve the safety of your medicines (pharmacovigilance)
This section explains what you can do if you suspect a side effect possibly due to your treatment.
Role of EURORDIS
EURORDIS plays an important role in the orphan drug development process through participation in the Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products at the European Medicines Agency....
Patient advocates involvement
Patient advocates are actively involved in orphan drug development and regulatory affairs.
Access to orphan drugs
A good medication for rare disease patients is a medication that is both available in the country where they live and affordable. The drug is of...
Health technology assessment
The goal of HTA is to support health care decisions and to serve policy making through objective information. HTA is a multi-disciplinary field of policy analysis that...
EURORDIS Round Table of Companies (ERTC)
EURORDIS Round Table of Companies (ERTC) is a “club” of pharmaceutical companies with a common interest in rare diseases and orphan drug development.
RareConnect
A social network of Rare Disease Communities led by NORD and EURORDIS in partnership with leading disease-specific patient groups. List of Rare Disease Communities:
- Alkaptonuria (AKU)
- Alström Syndrome
- Alternating Hemiplegia
- Atypical Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome
- Amyloidosis
- Behçet's Syndrome
- CAPS
- CDG
- Coats disease
- Cryoglobulinemia
- Cystinosis
- Dravet Syndrome
- DysNet, Dysmelia - Limb Differences
- Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome
- Epidermolysis Bullosa
- Erdheim-Chester Disease
- Evans Syndrome
- Familial Mediterranean Fever
- Fibromuscular dysplasia
- Glut1 DS
- Hereditary Leiomyomatosis and Renal Cell Cancer
- Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia
- Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
- Lipoprotein Lipase Deficiency
- Mastocytosis and Mast Cell Activation Disorders community
- Multiple Myeloma
- Multiple system atrophy
- Moebius Syndrome
- Narcolepsy
- Neuroacanthocytosis
- Paraneoplastic Neurological Syndromes
- Porphyria
- Propionic Acidemia
- Pulmonary Hypertension
- Rett Syndrome
- Trimethylaminuria
- Von Hippel-Lindau
- Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia
- Whim syndrome
- Alkaptonuria (AKU)
- Alström Syndrome
- Alternating Hemiplegia
- Atypical Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome
- Amyloidosis
- Behçet's Syndrome
- CAPS
- CDG
- Coats disease
- Cryoglobulinemia
- Cystinosis
- Dravet Syndrome
- DysNet, Dysmelia - Limb Differences
- Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome
- Epidermolysis Bullosa
- Erdheim-Chester Disease
- Evans Syndrome
- Familial Mediterranean Fever
- Fibromuscular dysplasia
- Glut1 DS
- Hereditary Leiomyomatosis and Renal Cell Cancer
- Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia
- Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
- Lipoprotein Lipase Deficiency
- Mastocytosis and Mast Cell Activation Disorders community
- Multiple Myeloma
- Multiple system atrophy
- Moebius Syndrome
- Narcolepsy
- Neuroacanthocytosis
- Paraneoplastic Neurological Syndromes
- Porphyria
- Propionic Acidemia
- Pulmonary Hypertension
- Rett Syndrome
- Trimethylaminuria
- Von Hippel-Lindau
- Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia
- Whim syndrome
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