Supporting Rare Disease Day 2017

Research to beat rare diseases

With Rare Disease Day 2017 approaching on February 28, we want to show our support. As such, we'd like to share a few statistics to help shed light and increase our understanding on the state of rare disease today.

• More than 6,000 rare diseases have been accounted for, though this is complicated by:
  • Symptoms which vary from one disease to another;
  • Patients with the same disease whose symptoms often vary.
• 80% of rare diseases are genetic in origin, while the remaining 20% are due to bacterial or viral infections, allergies, environmental causes or are degenerative and proliferative.
• 50% of those affected by rare disease are children.
• In the EU alone, rare disease impacts as many as 30 million people.

It’s clear that there’s plenty of work to be done! We are proud to be a friend of Rare Disease Day 2017, organized by EURORDIS. EURORDIS is doing important work to unify international efforts to understand rare disease. This year’s slogan is “with research, possibilities are limitless.”

We couldn’t agree more. We believe that research and increased access to comprehensive tools will mitigate the many hardships suffered by those with rare disease and their families.

In fact, earlier this year, we partnered with the Rare Genomics Institute by offering them access to our Hereditary Disease Solution. By helping to raise awareness and expand efforts to combat rare disease, we hope that the rare disease community finds unity, solace and eventually, cures.