Sanofi launches AccelRare reduce India’s rare disease diagnosis challenge
Covering 310 rare diseases, AccelRare brings 88 per cent accuracy to a country where 7 per cent Indians live with a rare disease, yet 43 per cent HCPs have never encountered even one
Sanofi announced the India launch of AccelRare, an AI-powered digital pre-diagnosis tool designed to transform the way healthcare professionals diagnose rare diseases; and dramatically reduce the time it takes for patients to access life-changing treatment.
The launch marks a defining moment in Sanofi’s ambition to become the first pharmaceutical company powered by artificial intelligence at scale, deploying AI not just in laboratories and clinical trials, but directly at the point of care, where the distance between a patient and a diagnosis can mean years of suffering.
A Crisis Hidden in plain sight
India is home to an estimated 72-96 million people living with a rare disease, approximately 7% of the population. Yet according to the Indian Organisation of Rare Diseases (IORD), 43% of Indian doctors have never encountered a rare disease patient3.
The paradox is stark: rare diseases are not rare in aggregate, but their individual complexity means they are routinely missed, misdiagnosed, or dismissed. A child presenting with thrombocytopenia (a hallmark symptom of Gaucher Disease) is far more likely to be treated for dengue fever than referred to a specialist
The result: a diagnostic odyssey resulting in delays and irreversible damage
The Solution: Intelligence at the speed of care
AccelRare changes this equation.
In just 5-10mins, a healthcare professional can enter a patient’s symptoms, medical history, and test results into the free, highly secure, anonymous, web-based platform and receive a differential diagnosis covering 310 rare diseases, with a reliability rate above 88%. The tool then provides a complete description of each suspected disease, recommends complementary diagnostic exams, and maps the patient to relevant government-recognized COEs across India for immediate referral.
Co-developed and validated by 67 rare disease experts across 13 rare disease networks, AccelRare is built on MedVir, which is certified as a Class I medical device in Europe. In India, AccelRare is approved as a web-based pre-diagnostic tool for suspected rare diseases and classified as a Class A (non-sterile and non-measuring) medical device. It is available free of charge, requires no registration, is highly secure and collects no patient identification data, making it as accessible as it is powerful.
Dr Mayur Shah, Head of Rare Diseases Business, Sanofi India said, “Behind the word ‘rare’ lies a staggering reality. An estimated 72-96 million people in India are living with a rare disease, and by the time many receive an accurate diagnosis, irreversible damage may already have occurred. AccelRare is our call to transform compassion into concrete action, democratizing rare disease expertise and putting the diagnostic intelligence of 50 world-class specialists into the hands of every doctor in every corner of India. Early diagnosis remains the single most important factor in improving outcomes, and when treatment begins on time, lives are transformed, because #EveryLifeIsPrecious. At Sanofi, our commitment to the rare disease community in India spans more than 25 years; and AccelRare is our renewed commitment to going further and faster, ensuring that no patient is lost, simply because the right knowledge wasn’t available at the right moment.”
Dr Milan Choksey, Medical Lead, Rare Diseases Business, Sanofi India said, “AccelRare is a genuine gamechanger because it gives a general paediatrician or primary care physician a structured, evidence-based differential diagnosis covering 270 rare diseases, in under ten minutes, with an accuracy above 88%, validated by 50 rare disease experts. That is not just a digital tool; that is a second opinion from the world’s best rare disease minds, available at the moment of clinical suspicion, before a child is lost to years of inconclusive testing. This matters because as a physician, I know what it means to face a child with unexplained hepatosplenomegaly or persistent thrombocytopenia – symptoms that in a busy, general paediatric practice seeing hundreds of children every week, can so easily be attributed to a common infection like dengue or a routine haematological finding. The clinical reality is that rare diseases hide in plain sight, masked by presentations that mimic everyday conditions, and AccelRare will help nip that very problem in the bud.”