Takeda Pharmaceutical Supports Faster Rare Disease Diagnosis

New England Council member Takeda Pharmaceutical has developed a plan to shorten the time it takes to diagnose rare diseases in children. Partnering with Microsoft and EUORDIS-Rare Diseases Europe, to support the Global Commission to End the Diagnostic Odyssey for Children, Takeda has released a report with three key policies to expedite rare disease diagnoses.

Rare diseases currently take between five and ten years to diagnose, with 40% of patients receiving at least one misdiagnosis. The Global Commission focuses on children as most of the 6,000 identified rare diseases begin in childhood. The solutions developed in this report include giving families tools to identify seemingly unrelated symptoms, equipping frontline physicians with better tools and knowledge, and revamping genetic consultations to standardize the process and include more telemedicine options.

Wolfram Northaft, Chief Medical Officer at Takeda and Co-Chair of the Global Commission, explained, “Independent of any specific therapeutic approach is how we as a company want to help the community, and that means patients and academia and other organizations, in a very holistic approach.”

The Council praises Takeda’s support for the Global Commission and for its ongoing efforts to advance medical care in the field of rare diseases.