[rsheridan6]

Here's a company that was started in 2006 with the intention of treating rare diseases: http://www.atonrx.com/background.php

They were just bought out for $318M. Not bad.

Treatments for rare diseases actually have fewer regulatory hurdles because of the Orphan Drug Act, which basically says that there's a lower standard of evidence for drugs that treat rare diseases.

>My point over here was that they fund them, but they might not fund something as risky as stem cell therapy.

Maybe not, but maybe that's a good thing, for reasons carbocation stated.

>is there an data freely available online on the composition of companies that market orphan drugs?

There's a list of drugs here (well, do a search on an empty string and you get a list) and the companies who make them, but it's not exactly predigested.

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/opdlisting/oopd/index....