Repurposing Drugs For New Indications: Benefits and Challenges
Summary: Repositioning existing drugs to treat new diseases – both rare and common – is an attractive prospect to a large contingent of the pharma industry seeking to shorten development timelines and economize development costs. Building on existing research and development efforts means that potentially groundbreaking therapies can achieve approval and reach patients faster, with significant savings for drugs that have already undergone extensive preclinical and clinical safety assessments. However, the process of drug repurposing still leads to significant scientific, financial and regulatory challenges. Our panel of experts from Humanigen, Catalent and WYSS Institute discuss the challenges of advancing a repurposed drug to market and how to overcome them to achieve strategic success.