I found out a bit about this when a good friend of mine had two daughters that were born with a rare genetic disease (Morquio). The US government, since 1983,

I found out a bit about this when a good friend of mine had two daughters that were born with a rare genetic disease (Morquio). The US government, since 1983, provides grants and streamlines drug development processes for development of drugs for rare diseases. The government calls them “Orphan Drugs” and defines them as drugs that treat diseases that affect less thank 200k people annually, and are not expected to be profitable within 7 years. I believe that my friend said that pharmaceutical companies are actually required or strongly incentivized to research some number per year but I can’t find a reference right now. https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/files/fda%20orphan%20drugs.pdf https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/files/fda%20orphan%20drugs...