Rare Diseases

[George K]

I am amazed at the drugs I see being advertised on TV.

Otezla
Jardiance
Ozempic

Today I saw an ad for Vyvgart. New to me.

It's a drug for myasthenia gravis. It got me to thinking how common is this disease? I remember seeing (and diagnosing!) one case when I was a senior in medical school. I think I saw one when I was in private practice.

Considering the (literally) thousands of people I took care of, I can only remember one case after med school.

Psoriasis is another one....

Why are they advertising drugs for such rare diseases? Obviously, it makes money, but, my goodness...

BTW, it's ridiculously expensive.

[Mik]

Not to mention you might get a fatal infection in the taint perineum.

[Rich]

Psoriasis is rare? I seem to know a ton of people with one of several different versions of that..

That said, I do wonder about the economic viability of advertising a rare-disease drug...on TV. Don't rare diseases have limited treatment options usually? And wouldn't a news of a new, effective treatment spread pretty quickly among the few Doctors who would be treating these conditions?

[Copper]

@George-K said in Rare Diseases:

Why are they advertising drugs for such rare diseases?

Combine with the fact that you never see ads for drugs to cure covid.

[George K]

@Rich said in Rare Diseases:

Psoriasis is rare?

No, it's not. About 2% of the population. I mistyped...