image by: HWN

HWN Suggests

Giving old drugs new life…to save lives

Along with “SARS-CoV-2” and “cytokine storm,” the COVID-19 pandemic has added an alphabet soup of strange drug names to the public lexicon: hydroxychloroquine, tocilizumab, ivermectin, atovaquone. Though many of us were hearing those names (and struggling to spell them) for the first time, all of these drugs have been around for decades. It was our global “kitchen sink” attempt to identify something – anything – that showed efficacy against the novel coronavirus that brought them into our texts and email threads, along with the hope that some of these drugs could be repurposed to treat COVID-19.

read full article

Featured

  Every Cure

We are a nonprofit initiative on a mission to unlock the full potential of existing medicines to treat every disease and every patient they possibly can.

 Doctors Told Him He Was Going to Die. Then A.I. Saved His Life

The lifesaving drug regimen wasn’t thought up by the doctor, or any person. It had been spit out by an artificial intelligence model. In labs around the world, scientists are using A.I. to search among existing medicines for treatments that work for rare diseases. Drug repurposing, as it’s called, is not new, but the use of machine learning is speeding up the process — and could expand the treatment possibilities for people with rare diseases and few options.

 Repurpose This Drug

How drugs that hit targets for depression and kidney disease could help people suffering physical pain.

Articles of Interest

A seemingly small semantic issue is a major roadblock to develop treatments for rare diseases

Drug repurposing is a decades-old practice. Aspirin, at first a painkiller, is now also used to prevent blood clots. Amantadine, originally developed for influenza, was later repurposed as a therapy for Parkinson’s disease. During the pandemic, many drugs — including baricitinib, remdesivir, and tocilizumab — that were originally designed to treat other diseases were repurposed as potential Covid-19 treatments.

Can Old Prescription Drugs Provide New Treatments for Alcoholism?

By scouring thousands of medications created for other conditions, a researcher wants to find pills that can help overcome addiction.

Drug repurposing for rare: progress and opportunities for the rare disease community

Drug repurposing is a growing trend in recent years due to lack of therapies for many rare diseases. Several global initiatives are ongoing to support drug repurposing.

Drug repurposing: a nexus of innovation, science, and potential

The urgency of finding therapeutic solutions for emerging and existing health challenges has never been more pronounced. In the pursuit of this goal, the value of a strategy that makes use of existing resources is being recognized: drug repurposing or repositioning of compounds for new indications. Such approaches are employed against cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS, and many other diseases. This Collection, aptly titled “Drug Repurposing”, includes research and perspectives from scientists at the forefront of this innovative field.

Drug Repurposing: An Effective Tool in Modern Drug Discovery

Drug repurposing is using an existing drug for a new treatment that was not indicated before. It has received immense attention during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency. Drug repurposing has become the need of time to fasten the drug discovery process and find quicker solutions to the over-exerted healthcare scenario and drug needs.

Drug repurposing: progress, challenges and recommendations

Given the high attrition rates, substantial costs and slow pace of new drug discovery and development, repurposing of 'old' drugs to treat both common and rare diseases is increasingly becoming an attractive proposition because it involves the use of de-risked compounds, with potentially lower overall development costs and shorter development timelines.

How to Make the Most of Drugs We Already Have

Despite the limited financial incentives and investment, over time, some valuable new uses of previously developed drugs have been found. Sometimes new uses are discovered by accident or through publicly sponsored studies. The diabetes drug metformin appears useful in treating breast cancer. Thalidomide, the morning sickness treatment that caused birth defects, is now approved for the treatment of multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer. In 2012, researchers experimenting on mice discovered that a cancer treatment drug showed encouraging early signs of effectiveness against Alzheimer’s disease.

Old Drugs May Find a New Purpose: Fighting the Coronavirus

A “drug repurposing” strategy uncovers dozens of compounds that have the unexpected potential to combat the virus.

Repurposing Drugs to Fight Cancer

While doctors are allowed to use drugs approved for one disease to treat another condition, many don’t because approval to do so doesn’t appear on the label. But that may be changing.

Researchers Show Gains in Finding Reusable Drugs

In a bit of high-tech recycling, researchers have developed an innovative way to identify already-approved drugs that may work against diseases they weren't designed to combat.

This Doctor Found His Own Miracle Drug. Now He Wants to Do It for Others

New database aims to match rare-disease patients with drugs on pharmacy shelves.

To Find The Next Antibiotic, Scientists Give Old Drugs A New Purpose

With antibiotic-resistant bacteria on the rise, scientists are urgently trying to find drugs that will work against persistent infections. But coming up with new ones does not have to be the only strategy. A recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that they can repurpose bithionol — a drug formerly used to treat parasitic infections in horses — to kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including MRSA, a common hospital-acquired infection.

We Used to Recycle Drugs From Patients’ Urine

Penicillin extracted from a patient’s urine could be reused.

Why finding new uses for old drugs is a growing business

'Repurposing' drugs for different ailments is cheaper than testing new ones, and small biotech firms are taking advantage.

“Repurposing” off-patent drugs offers big hopes of new treatments

But governments need to give companies incentives to invest in them.