Drug Repurposing: Risk- Benefits and Associated Incentives

Pharmaceutical R&D is failing with an era of triple obstacles – increased timelines for approval, high cost and even higher failure rates. The world around us is constantly putting pressure on creating completely new solutions for about 4000 diseases with known molecular basics and many other diseases without basic intellect. There comes a need to remove the wide gap in innovation showcasing a challenge for drug discovery. The shockingly tedious drug development process is forcing us to find more effective solutions and drug repurposing can be a starting point where the clear understanding of the de novo pathway for an existing drug essentially unlocks the full potential for repurposing a drug for other diseases. Drug repositioning (also known as drug repurposing, re-profiling, re-tasking or therapeutic switching) is the application of known  drugs and compounds to new indications (i.e., new diseases). This idea dates back with cases like Viagra, Thalidomide, and Aspirin etc. There are a number of approaches to drug repurposing, but these are ultimately an expedition into new area. Scientists have to justify examining a compound in a different disease state, so they often make a hypothesis based on possible associations between mechanisms. A significant advantage of drug repositioning over traditional drug development is that since the repositioned drug has already passed a significant number of toxicity and other tests, its safety is known and the risk of failure for reasons of adverse toxicology are reduced. The possibilities are endless, and animal models are elevating drug repurposing's potential.