Incentives to Repurpose Existing Drugs for Orphan Indications

Abstract

The Orphan Drug Act has been successful in providing incentives to find cures for orphan diseases. However, many orphan diseases are still without cure. Therefore, the 114th Congress has introduced the 21st Century Cures Act and the Orphan Product Extension Now Accelerating Cures and Treatment Act of 2015 to further provide incentives to innovators to repurpose existing drugs for treatment of these orphan diseases. However, these bills are currently pending and their incentives might not go far enough.