PHARMACEUTICAL STRATEGIES IN ORPHAN DRUG DEVELOPMENT

  • Pandaga Bhargavi Priyadarshini Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, 5th Mile, Pulladigunta, Guntur-522017, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Abstract

Pharmaceutical medicines known as orphan medications are created to treat uncommon illnesses that only a small percentage of people have and frequently have no proven treatments. Only a small number of licensed treatments are accessible despite the rising prevalence of rare diseases worldwide, mostly because of financial, regulatory, and scientific obstacles. With an emphasis on developing therapeutic modalities, technological breakthroughs, and regulatory frameworks, this paper offers a thorough analysis of orphan drug development. Treatment options for formerly untreatable uncommon diseases have increased due to recent trends showing a diversity of pharmacological modalities, including small molecules, gene and cell therapies, nucleic acid-based medicines, monoclonal antibodies, and synthetic proteins. Orphan drug approvals in the US have been greatly sped by regulatory incentives like the Orphan Drug Act, and development has been further aided by changing trial designs like n-of-one and expedited review procedures

Keywords: Orphan drug, regulatory pathways, treatment, drug development, rare diseases, patient advocacy rare diseases, regulatory

References

1. Gu M, Sun S, You Q, Wang L. Forward or backward: lessons learned from small molecule drugs approved by FDA from 2012 to 2022. Molecules. 2023;28(24):7941. doi:10.3390/molecules28247941.
2. Rao A, Rao CHB, Devanna N. Design and evaluation of mucoadhesive buccal bilayered tablets of metoprolol succinate. World J Pharm Res. 2017;7(3):172-178.
3. Giannuzzi V, Conte R, Landi A, Ottomano SA, Bonifazi D, Baiardi P, et al. Orphan medicinal products in Europe and United States to cover needs of patients with rare diseases: an increased common effort is to be foreseen. Orphanet J Rare Dis. 2017;12(1):64. doi:10.1186/s13023-017-0617-1.
4. Kiranmai M, Renuka P, Brahmaiah B, Chandu BR. Vitamin D as a promising anticancer agent. Int J Res Pharm Chem. 2012;2(2):636-649.
5. Haendel M, Vasilevsky N, Unni D, Bologa C, Harris N, Rehm H, et al. How many rare diseases are there? Nat Rev Drug Discov. 2020;19(2):77-78. doi:10.1038/d41573-019-00180-y.
6. Scherman D, Fetro C. Drug repositioning for rare diseases: knowledge-based success stories. Therapies. 2020;75(2):161-167. doi:10.1016/j.therap.2020.02.007.
7. Phillips MI. Big Pharma's new model in orphan drugs and rare diseases. Expert Opin Orphan Drugs. 2013;1(1):1-3. doi:10.1517/21678707.2013.752128.
8. Kumar Kakkar A, Dahiya N. The evolving drug development landscape: from blockbusters to niche busters in the orphan drug space. Drug Dev Res. 2014;75(4):231-234. doi:10.1002/ddr.21176.
9. Mullard A. FDA approves 100th monoclonal antibody product. Nat Rev Drug Discov. 2021;20(7):491-495.
10. Kulkarni JA, Witzigmann D, Thomson SB, Chen S, Leavitt BR, Cullis PR, Van der Meel R. The current landscape of nucleic acid therapeutics. Nat Nanotechnol. 2021;16(6):630-643. doi:10.1038/s41565-021-00898-0.
11. Yamada K, Ito Y. Recent chemical approaches for site-specific conjugation of native antibodies: technologies toward next-generation antibody-drug conjugates. ChemBioChem. 2019;20(21):2729-2737. doi:10.1002/cbic.201900178.
12. Sedykh SE, Prinz VV, Buneva VN, Nevinsky GA. Bispecific antibodies: design, therapy, perspectives. Drug Des Devel Ther. 2018;12:195-208. doi:10.2147/DDDT.S151282.
13. Prasanthi G, Chandu BR, Pradeep Kumar Y, Swarnalatha D, Gopinath. Chemical pharmacology of khat leaves. J Glob Trends Pharm Sci. 2014;5(4):2024-2029.
14. Hair P, Cameron F, McKeage K. Mipomersen sodium: first global approval. Drugs. 2013;73(5):487-493. doi:10.1007/s40265-013-0042-2.
15. Hoy SM. Patisiran: first global approval. Drugs. 2018;78(15):1625-1631. doi:10.1007/s40265-018-0983-6.
16. Yamada K, Ito Y. Recent chemical approaches for site-specific conjugation of native antibodies: technologies toward next-generation antibody-drug conjugates. ChemBioChem. 2019;20(21):2729-2737. doi:10.1002/cbic.201900178.
17. Lachmann RH, Patterson MC, Sirrs S. Lost in translation-challenges in drug development for inherited metabolic diseases. J Inherit Metab Dis. 2022;45(3):381-382.
18. Rani TT, Brahmaiah B, Revathi B, Nama S, Baburao C. Targeting of anti-cancer drugs through nanoparticles. Int J Pharm Ther. 2013;4(3):154-159.
Published
31/03/2026
Statistics
1 Views | 0 Downloads
Citatons
How to Cite
Pandaga, B. (2026). PHARMACEUTICAL STRATEGIES IN ORPHAN DRUG DEVELOPMENT. The Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 6(1), 10-14. Retrieved from https://saapjournals.org/index.php/tjmdr/article/view/885
Section
Review Articles