The federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has instituted new reduced reimbursement rates for all but 4 orphan drugs, claiming that multi-use drugs like Botox don't need price breaks. ... Read More

Rituxan (rituximab), an orphan drug, was approved by the U.S. FDA in 1997 for treatment of B-cell non-Hodgkins lymphoma. However, researchers are experimenting with a new use of the ... Read More

Most people know Botox as a vanity treatment for facial lines, but the medication was originally developed as an orphan drug to treat movement disorders characterized by involuntary muscle contractions, ... Read More

Researchers at Stanford University Medical Center have developed a technique to identify the pattern of antibody activation in autoimmune disorders in mice. This technique also provides information needed to predict ... Read More

A rise in the number of mosquito-borne encephalitis cases, particularly eastern equine encephalitis, has been noted this year. In the Southeastern United States, along with the hundreds of horses affected, ... Read More

The most striking symptom of this very rare disorder is permanent facial paralysis, meaning the affected person cannot smile, frown, or blink. Few physicians are aware of the syndrome, so ... Read More

Teva Pharmaceuticals is testing its drug rasagiline mesylate for its effectiveness in treating early and advanced stage Parkinson's disease. Studies have shown that people with the disorder who take rasagiline ... Read More

Researchers at the Salk Institute and Johns Hopkins University have developed a gene therapy that fights the destruction caused by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease). Mice with the disorder ... Read More

Children born with DiGeorge syndrome have a poorly developed or absent thymus gland, which is a major player in the immune system. This leaves them open to infection. Duke University ... Read More

Researchers are working on two fronts to try to prevent outbreaks of Ebola virus, a deadly incurable virus that causes its victims to bleed to death. In the United States, ... Read More

Researchers at the St. Jude Department of Hematology/Oncology, Memphis, TN, have developed a special gene therapy to treat beta-thalassemia, a blood disorder. The researchers treated experimental mice with chemotherapy, then ... Read More

You may have heard about the effects of this syndrome: people who died after eating undercooked hamburger at a fast-food restaurant, or after drinking contaminated water. Learn how bacteria ... Read More