NEWS - New institute will study rare diseases

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New institute will study rare diseases

Wed May 20, 2009 6:36pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A unique new institute will look for ways to

treat rare and neglected diseases and take the first and riskiest

steps toward bringing new drugs to market, U.S. health officials said

on Wednesday.

Congress has provided $24 million a year for five years to start the

Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases Program, or TRND at the

National Institutes of Health, acting NIH director Dr. Raynard Kington

told reporters in a telephone briefing.

The program will use taxpayer money to get drugs through the most

costly and dangerous phase of development, known as the " Valley of

Death " because so many fail there.

It will publish details of failures as well as successes to guide

other researchers, the NIH said.

" Twenty-five to 30 million Americans suffer from rare or neglected

diseases, " Kington said.

A rare disease is one that affects fewer than 200,000 Americans, and

NIH estimates there are about 6,800 of these conditions, ranging from

multiple symmetric lipomatosis or Madelung's disease, characterized by

large fat deposits around the neck and nervous system abnormalities,

to pseudomyxoma peritonei, in which tumor cells swell up the abdomen.

Only about 200 of these conditions, many of which affect fewer than a

dozen people, have treatments.

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Read the full article here:

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE54J7F220090520

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