Rare Disease Research in Crosshairs of Bill’s Tax Credit Limit (1)

An orphan drug tax credit limit in President Joe Biden’s signature social spending package is generating fears that it will chill research into how existing drugs might be used for rare diseases if Congress passes it into law.

Tens of millions of patients with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, sickle cell disease, and other rare conditions have benefited from more than 730 drugs and therapies approved by the Food and Drug Administration since Congress first passed the Orphan Drug Act in 1983.

But a section of the House-passed Build Back Better Act (H.R. 5376) narrows the kinds of drugs that would ...