What Are Rare Diseases?
There is no single, widely accepted definition for rare disorders. For instance, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), “the international classification disease-11 (ICD-11) includes some 5,500 rare diseases and their synonyms” (1). According to the U.S. Food & Drug Association (FDA), “over 7,000 rare diseases affect more than 30 million people in the United States” (2). In addition, there are also regional differences. For instance, in the U.S., rare diseases are defined as “a disease or condition that impacts fewer than 200,000 people” (3). In Europe, it’s “as those with a prevalence lower than 5 in 10,000 people” (4-5) and in Japan, it’s “as those with a prevalence of less than 50,000, or one in 2,500” (6).
Developing rare disease therapies requires increased access to expertise, knowledge, data, and insights to bring the right patient to the proper treatment and/or trial at the right time. We facilitate state-of-the-art technologies, subject matter expertise, specialized logistics, and operations to accelerate your rare disease research and development.