Addressing the social and economic challenges of Orphan Drugs: a managerial perspective

The work aims to propose preliminary reflections upon a managerial view concerning the open issue of Orphan Drugs. After an overview of the scenario of Orphan Drugs at an international level and a short literature review, the work highlights a dominant economic rationality, which essentially follows a ‘linear’ logic, in the approach to frame the problem of Orphan Drugs both from a policy making and a scientific perspective. By widening the view in the framing of the problem, a more radical change appears to be required in order to overcome the dilemma of reconciling the economic and the social perspectives and be able to address the issue of Orphan Drugs accordingly. A deep rethinking of business models within the context of the worldwide engagement for a more sustainable and inclusive world is at the basis of a new Inclusive Development strategy, which is outlined as a possible pathway to reconcile the economic and social perspectives in the management of businesses.