ORPHAN DRUGS AND HIGH COST MEDICATIONS: CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS

@#There had been increased and strong public interests in rare diseases and orphan drugs as well as the issue of compulsory licencing for expensive medications in Malaysia in the mass-media and social media. We reviewed the issues of orphan drugs and the challenges faced in many countries in developing appropriate health financial modelling as well as getting accurate data on rare diseases. We also reviewed the old off-patent medications and the developments on how policy-makers can intervene to make expensive treatment affordable and sustainable for patients and the country