(10-17-22) Jim Geraghty has been a passionate participant in the orphan drug revolution since its inception, a leader in the field as a strategy consultant, biotechnology executive, and venture entrepreneur. Advances in medicine have made possible better treatments for widespread, familiar human illnesses like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Yet there are thousands of much less common diseases, most of genetic origin, each classed as "rare" because it afflicts only a small number of people.

According to Jim Geraghty these patient groups were long ignored by a pharmaceutical industry that judged them too small to provide a return on the investment needed to develop an effective remedy. Yet these "orphaned" diseases collectively caused misery and expense, often far greater than did more common ailments, for tens of millions of individuals and their families.

In his book, Inside The Orphan Drug Revolution: The Promise of Patient-Centered Biotechnology, Jim Geraghty provides eyewitness accounts of advances as they occurred and portraits of the pioneering scientists and physicians, tireless activists, and visionary business leaders who made the revolution happen.

Join us for a discussion when Jim Geraghty addresses questions such as: why do drugs to treat orphan diseases cost so much - how can we ensure they are affordable - how can their effectiveness be responsibly assessed - how can access to them be expanded internationally and more on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.