Leveraging Existing Knowledge for Drug Repurposing: A Rational Approach to Addressing Unmet Medical Needs

Drug repurposing is an emerging strategy in the drug discovery arena, shedding light on new therapeutic uses for already known drugs. This strategy enormously reduces the time and cost of drug development because it utilizes existing data on safety and efficacy of drugs. This review provides basic mechanisms, strategies, and challenges related to drug repurposing. Here we discuss the role of polypharmacology, potential off-target effects in the use of computational and experimental methods for identifying repurposing opportunities, and regulatory and ethical considerations in drug repurposing. Completed cases demonstrate that this approach works effectively across various therapeutic areas, from oncology to rare diseases. Challenges include the need for regulatory and clinical data. Drug repurposing is extremely promising for the rapid delivery of new treatments to patients while cooperating in the development of a more sustainable healthcare system. In-depth knowledge of biological systems and disease mechanisms will allow for drug repurposing to potentially revolutionize new treatments and patients' outcomes.