Unexpected Therapeutic Effects of Common Drugs: Lessons from 15 Years of Drug Repurposing

• Autor(a) principal: Gonçalves, Jorge Manuel Moreira
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Quintas, Clara, Silva, Dany, Queiroz, Glória, Fresco, Paula
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.25756/rpf.v11i4.228

Drug repurposing (DR) is one of the expressions that has been used to translate the process of discovering new therapeutic uses for drugs already approved for other clinical indications. The concept was presented 15 years ago. Initially, the intention was to shorten the pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) process and thereby reduce the costs and risks for the pharmaceutical industry to bring new medicines to the market. The automation of pharmacological screening methods and the advance in the knowledge of physiology and pathophysiology have confirmed the expectation that drugs identified by DR may also be effective in pathologies where unmet therapeutic needs persist. One of such conditions is cancer. In cancer, several clinical studies have revealed the potential of several drugs in reducing incidence and/or mortality, namely metformin and beta adrenoceptor antagonists such as propranolol. However, specially designed clinical trials are still needed to validate such therapeutic potential. For most DR-identified drugs, the patent period is over or about to end, which reduces the chances for the pharmaceutical industry to cover the needed R&D investments. In the absence of mechanisms to compensate the risk of private investment, a new model of pharmaceutical public and/or private R&D model of partnership should be found to ensure fair risk sharing and the deliver to the society the therapeutic potential of such public assets, affordably.