History of the Food and Drug Administration
In June 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt signed into law the Food and Drug Act, also known as the "Wiley Act" after its chief advocate. The Act prohibited, under penalty of seizure of goods, the interstate transport of food which had been "adulterated," with that term referring to the addition of fillers of reduced "quality or strength," coloring to conceal "damage or inferiority," formulation with additives "injurious to health," or the use of "filthy, decomposed, or putrid" substances. The act applied similar penalties to the interstate marketing of "adulterated" drugs, in which the "standard of strength, quality, or purity" of the active ingredient was not either stated clearly on the label or listed in the "United States Pharmacopoeia" or the "National Formulary". The act also banned "misbranding" of food and drugs. The responsibility for examining food and drugs for such "adulteration" or "misbranding" was given to Wiley's USDA Bureau of Chemistry.
Orphan drug
The Pharmaceitical Executive opines, that the "ODA is nearly universally acknowledged to be a success".
Before the United States Congress enacted the ODA in 1983, only 38 drugs were approved in the USA specifically to treat orphan diseases. 
In the USA, from January 1983 to June 2004, the Office of Orphan Products Development 249 orphan drugs received marketing authorization and granted 1,129 different orphan drug designations, compared to fewer than ten such products in the decade prior to 1983. 
From 1983 until May 2010, the FDA approved 353 orphan drugs and granted orphan designations to 2,116 compounds. 
As of 2010, 200 of the roughly 7,000 officially designated orphan diseases have become treatable.