Research on economy and social exclusion: China dolls and rare diseases

Abstract

The second workshop on "Research on Economy And Social Exclusion (REASE)" was held in the University of Tokyo on January 26, 2013. Focusing on rare diseases and disorders in China, three speakers from China introduced the current status of rare diseases and the challenge of support organizations for patients with rare disease and disorders in China, and especially pointed out some important issues associated with rare diseases and disorders in China. From the viewpoint of economics, this paper discusses some of the important issues of rare diseases and disorders in China raised in this workshop, especially from the aspects of economy of scale and orphan drugs, and the emergence of stigma from discrimination. It was shown that international coordination and cooperation are called for in order to give a proper incentive to the drug industries to create new drugs for rare diseases, and suggested that an important step toward inclusion is to reduce stigma by making rare diseases visible as much as possible.