Rare Diseases

• Rare diseases are those which affects very less number of individuals in the overall population, and very few diseases have medicines to treat them.
  • Medicines used to treat such rare diseases are classified as orphan drugs.
  • Budget 2026 has exempted import duty on such rare disease drugs.
  • National Policy for Rare Diseases (NPRD), 2021 classifies diseases into three categories and have a upper limit for government assistance in each category.
  • ICMR’s National Registry for Rare and Other Inherited Disorders has been created to facilitate crowdfunding.

Who approves the addition?

• 63 Rare Diseases are included under the National Policy for Rare Diseases on the recommendation of the Central Technical Committee for Rare Diseases under the Directorate General of Health Services.

Source: PIB