8 TECH OUTLOOKSeptember - 2019Technology Drives and Elevates Drug By Bruce Bloom, Ex CEO, Cures Within ReachDrug repurposing has been a part of therapy discovery in medicine for as long as there have been drugs--even before the arrival of commercial "drugs"--when healers first repurposed nature's compounds for medical purposes. For this article we will define repurposing as testing drugs that are already approved for human use to find new uses in new diseases. Repurposed therapies used by physicians often resulted from some type of serendipity, which curious physicians and scientists examined further. Their observations were clinically tested, and the results were published for off-label use or commercialization of the repurposed therapies. Other repurposed therapies arose from desperate attempts by physicians and scientists to find anything that could help suffering patients, as was the case with many repurposed cancer therapies. One well-known repurposing example involves thalidomide. Thalidomide was withdrawn from the market for its original indication, only to be resurrected and first repurposed for leprosy. It was then further repurposed for multiple myeloma based on its perceived anti-angiogenic mechanism of action. There are dozens of other repurposing examples, most of which started out the same way--something unexpected happened, was observed, and further studied to create a repurposed treatment.While serendipity and desperation will continue to drive repurposing, technology has provided mechanisms that create expanding opportunities for more methodical and purposeful repurposing. Technological advances have given us the ability to actively and functionally search for new uses for existing drugs, as well as for nutraceuticals with drug-like properties. There are many established and new companies, academic labs, such as governmental initiatives Clinical and Translational Science Award programs (CTSAs) and non-profit organizations using some type of screening or other technology to purposefully search for repurposed therapies that can deliver treatment solutions for unmet medical needs. Here is a partial list, in no particular order--and perhaps without universally accepted nomenclature--of RepurposingIN MY OPINION
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