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Chasing Away Childhood Cancer

Just 5 minutes of your time has the potential to save countless lives!

By taking only a few minutes to lobby for the OPEN ACT, you can ensure that thousands of children who suffer from rare disease, such as pediatric cancers, have access to the treatment they need to survive.

Orphan Product Extensions Now, Accelerating Cures & Treatments, better known as the OPEN ACT, is legislation that asks government to provide financial incentives to pharmaceutical companies in order to encourage the development of drugs specifically developed to treat rare disease.

Currently, pharmaceutical companies are less likely to invest in research for rare disease, because the market is too small. A small market means that these companies lose money when they invest in rare disease research. What the Orphan act does is encourage the development of drugs for these smaller, less lucrative markets by asking pharmaceutical companies to repurpose approved, existing treatments that have been known to aid in the treatment of rare diseases. It’s also aims to provide pharmaceutical companies with financial incentives in the form of government grants, exclusivity rights and fee waivers, making the rare disease research market a more profitable one, which in turn encourages ongoing treatment research in the chase to find a cure.

The OPEN ACT further supports the Orphan act by proposing an additional exclusivity period for pharmaceutical companies who invest in rare disease research. What this means is that the pharmaceutical company that is doing the research, owns the exclusive rights to the market and therefor is able to gain exclusively from its profit.

It’s an ugly truth that the pharmaceutical industry is profitable but the reality is that without funds, they cannot continue to support the production and research of the drugs needed to help fight rare diseases. Economic incentives are imperative to ensuring that efforts are directed towards finding a cure for rare diseases!

You can take action and be a part of the change, by speaking to your local legislators to push this act forward. The OPEN ACT has the potential to ensure the approval of hundreds of tested, effective therapies in the next five years, saving the lives of thousands of American children suffering from curable diseases. The influx of these drugs on the market will also reduce the average cost of purchasing rare disease drugs, making them easily accessible to everyone.

Take action Now by clicking on this link and following the directions: http://action.everylifefoundation.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=16974

Just 5 minutes of your time has the potential to save countless lives.