National strategy in the works on ‘orphan drugs’

After years of debate, Canada is set to create a national framework to improve access to “orphan drugs” for people who suffer from rare disorders. The new framework, announced by federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, will provide a national strategy for authorizing and monitoring the use of orphan drugs as well as helping to spur research and development of new drugs to treat rare diseases. Aglukkaq also announced that Canada will launch Orphanet, a site dedicated to improving diagnosis, care and treatment of rare diseases. Read the complete news article here.