Happy Rare Disease Day!
Did you know that according to the US Government, Dupuytren is a rare disease?
If you count everyone with any degree of Dupuytren disease, it’s fairly common. In the US alone, the number of Dupuytren sufferers projects to about 10 million people.
But, if you ask the FDA, Dupuytren disease is a rare disease, an orphan disease. The FDA classified Dupuytren as a rare disease on May 23, 1996, when it approved orphan drug status to Clostridial collagenase for treatment of Dupuytren disease.
What does this mean? Good things.
It means that although Dupuytren disease is common, at any one time, the majority of people with Dupuytren have straight enough fingers that there’s no need for a straightening procedure.
It means that when we develop a blood biomarker for Dupuytren disease and can move forward on developing and testing preventive treatments, the cost for FDA drug approval will be only about a third of the standard cost of FDA drug approval because drugs for rare diseases are given priority.
When you support Dupuytren research, you are supporting rare disease research.
