Health ministers to help orphan drugs

The European Union is to try to increase research into, and the development of, medicines to treat rare diseases. Health ministers will look for a union-wide strategy to reduce the financial and administrative hurdles of producing these so called orphan drugs. The decision was taken after forceful prodding by the French government.

In a nine page memorandum to EU governments, the French, who hold the rotating presidency until the end of June, argued that European manufacturers were at a competitive disadvantage compared with firms in the US and Japan, where …