Posted by Michael Wonder on 03 Oct 2016
A golden ticket that fast tracks a medicine through the FDA
29 September 2016 - Sarepta Therapeutics won a big victory when its $300,000 muscular dystrophy drug was recently approved, but the company had other reasons to celebrate, too.
They were also awarded the medicine world’s equivalent of a Willy Wonka golden ticket.
The ticket, known as a rare pediatric disease priority review voucher, is part of a program created by Congress in 2007 to encourage the development of drugs for tropical diseases and later expanded to rare pediatric disorders. Any company awarded a voucher can use it for a fast-track government review of one of its future drugs — or it can sell the voucher to another company.
