WASHINGTON (AP) — For the nearly 30 million Americans who suffer from a rare disease, there’s heartening news: Drugmakers have been shifting much of their research away from pills for the millions to uncommon disorders that often kill prematurely because there are few or no treatment options.

Pharmaceutical and biotech companies are running patient tests of more than 5,400 potential new medicines, including many being tested for multiple conditions. Nearly 1,800 research projects are for rare diseases, and hundreds more are for disorders for which there’s been no new medicine in a decade or more. That’s according to a study to be released Thursday, sponsored by the trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, known as PhRMA.