Why Is Drug Repurposing Important?

Repurposing is a drug discovery method that could help treat patients and improve their quality of life by bringing new therapeutic options to market. This drug discovery method is also beneficial to pharmaceutical companies because it brings drugs to the market faster at a cheaper cost.

Why are drugs repurposed?

What is drug repurposing? Drug repurposing is like recycling. It takes existing drugs already approved for human use, and identifies new illnesses that they could treat. These ideas are then tested through a clinical trial to confirm their efficacy (effect) in the new patient population.

Is drug repurposing worth the effort?

Even if screening efforts are relatively inexpensive, doing clinical trials of approved drugs is not. Lowe, the chemist and blogger, points out that the advantage of drug repurposing is that scientists have already done the early stages of clinical development, so the drugs can go straight to human studies.