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Rare Diseases at FDA: A Successful Year for Orphan Products
Posted on February 27, 2015 by FDA Voice
By: Gayatri R. Rao, M.D., J.D.

2014 was a strong year for rare disease product development at FDA. It was also a year of significant firsts.

Dr. Gayatri RaoIn recognition of Rare Disease Day, February 28th, we want to reflect on the progress we have made thus far as we renew our commitment to rare disease patients. A rare disease is generally defined as a disease which affects fewer than 200,000 Americans a year. At FDA, the commitment to increase access to diagnostics and treatments to change the day-to-day reality of those living with rare diseases began over 30 years ago with the passage of the Orphan Drug Act.That commitment has steadily increased since then.

In 2014, we received our highest number to date of new requests for orphan drug designation. We received over 440 requests while just 7 years ago, we received less than half of that. We designated and approved more orphan drugs in 2014 than we had in previous years – nearly 300 drugs were designated and 48 were approved, including both novel and repurposed drugs. In 2014, 41% of all novel new drugs approved by the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research were for the treatment of rare diseases. Many of these orphan drug approvals were new and innovative, including Sylvant, to treat Castleman’s disease, which results in excessive lymph node growth, and Impavido, to treat forms of the tropical disease, leishmaniasis.

2014 was also a year of firsts for rare disease product development:

There were firsts in device development. For example, the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research approved its first device through the Humanitarian Device Exemption (HDE) pathway. This device, CliniMACS CD34 Reagent System, helps to mitigate potentially serious immune reactions associated with stem cell transplantation in patients with acute myeloid leukemia.

FDA produced in 2014 its first agency-wide blueprint to accelerate the development of therapies for pediatric rare diseases – a report and strategic plan outlining how to address issues for developing products for this population.

2014 saw the issuance of the first rare pediatric disease priority review voucher for the treatment of mucopolysaccharidosis type IVA (Morquio A syndrome), a rare lysosomal storage disease which affects about 1000 patients in the United States and can lead to debilitating and life-threatening abnormalities of bones, joints and the heart.

In recognition of Rare Disease Day 2015, the international rare disease community is coming together to pay tribute to the millions of individuals impacted by rare diseases all over the world. Through the solidarity and commitment of many stakeholders – patients and families, healthcare professionals, researchers, companies, and policy makers – the awareness of the daily challenges that are unique to each rare disease and the efforts to create solutions has risen exponentially in the past several decades. As members of the rare disease community, we are proud of our collective accomplishments but remain acutely aware of how much more there is still to be done. Given how 2015 is already shaping up, we expect that by working together, we will continue to make great strides in developing much needed products for the millions of patients living with rare diseases.

Gayatri R. Rao, M.D., J.D., is FDA’s Director for The Office of Orphan Products Development

http://blogs.fda.gov/fdavoice/index.php/2015/02/rare-diseases-at-fda-a-successful-year-for-orphan-products/