Pharmacuetical companies eye orphan drugs as new revenue source

Feb 1 2013

The New York Times: Making 'Every Patient Counts' A Business Imperative
Drug companies are fond of saying that every patient counts, but in the world of orphan diseases, entire business plans are built around the idea. ... Development of these drugs is increasingly attractive to pharmaceutical companies, which are searching for new sources of revenue as sales of more traditional, mass-market drugs have been lost to generic competition. The orphan drug market was worth more than $50 billion in 2011 and turns out blockbusters at the same rate as the broader industry, according to a recent Thomson Reuters analysis (Thomas, 1/30).