A groundbreaking public welfare foundation in China dedicated to combating rare diseases has announced a major effort to help fund treatments for patients afflicted by such disorders. The assistance program is being launched by the Illness Challenge Foundation, which focuses on bettering outcomes for more 120 disorders classified as rare because they each afflict a relatively small number of people. The program will solicit funding from the insurance and pharmaceutical industries and others to supplement what China’s government-provided medical insurance provides to such patients.