Today, more than 7,000 rare diseases have been identified. Primarily, most of them are deadly and pose a considerable burden to those who wish to get treatment. Sadly, 85% of these diseases do not have approved therapies, which can be used as treatment. Orphan drugs are extremely expensive as the cost range from $200,000-300,000 per year for every patient. Notably, these treatments tend to last a lifetime or for years because the developmental costs for these drugs must be recovered (Schilling, 2005). In this sense, the business looks attractive, and many companies can be enticed to join it. What these companies should put into consideration is that Genzyme is a first class biotechnology and it will be so hard to compete with it. Being a first-class company makes Genzyme the most dominant economic power in this business as they fulfill the largest unmet healthcare need and they justify the value of their product regardless of other competitors.
It is a significant risk that Genzyme took to venture into the business, but they have the upper hand in this market. Their merger with Sanofi is, indeed, an excellent opportunity for Genzyme to conduct extensive research on rare drugs so as to remain as the Orphan Drug main manufacturers. Genzyme has created value due to the many drugs that they have developed, but the company still needs to strategize ways in which their doctors and clinicians can get exposure. Essentially, this is easy because they are a few of them. In this regard, Genzyme Company can hold interviews with famous media programs and start blogs where doctors can explain various types of rare disease. They can also explain the treatment programs they offer among others.
References
Schilling, M. A. (2005). Strategic management of technological innovation. Tata McGraw-Hill Education.
