The calculus of cures.

More than half of the 139 drugs approved by the FDA since 2009 are for orphan diseases and cancers. By addressing economic and business factors that play a role in this disproportion, we can work to avoid systematically underinvesting in drugs in other key areas of medicine.

[1]  Joel Lexchin,et al.  The cost of drug development: a systematic review. , 2011, Health policy.

[2]  T. Fojo,et al.  Cancer drugs in the United States: Justum Pretium--the just price. , 2013, Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

[3]  A. Hoes,et al.  Number of Patients Studied Prior to Approval of New Medicines: A Database Analysis , 2013, PLoS medicine.