An orphan drug is “harvinaislääke” in Finnish, and means “harvinaiseen sairauteen käytetty lääkeaine, jonka tutkimiseen ja valmistamiseen on kaupallisissa lääkeyhtiöissä menekin vähäisyyden takia usein vain vähän kiinnostusta”  (definition taken from the online version of the medical dictionary Lääketieteen termit).  These drugs are listed in the EU register for orphan drugs .

Besides, there is information about orphan drugs and rare diseases on the Orphanet web page. (You can also choose another language than Finnish.)  Fimea has published an article about these drugs and rare diseases in 2011.  The article is written by Jaana Kallio and Veijo Saano and from it one can learn that in the EU, there is a committee called COMP which means Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products, in Finnish “harvinaislääkekomitea”. In this article, the term “orphan drug designation” has been translated as “harvinaislääkestatus”.