MPs call for rare conditions drugs fund

The Parliamentary Group for Muscular Dystrophy says it is concerned about funding for high-cost drugs after the special budget for treating rare diseases in England was merged into the overall NHS budget. A UK-wide strategy for rare diseases will be published this year although Scotland has a fund in place for the so called “orphan drugs” until April 2014. Millions of rare disease sufferers Overall it is estimated that 3.5 million people in the UK suffer from a rare disease, and that 70,000 of those have some form of the different muscle-wasting diseases known as muscular dystrophy. The MPs say