Geodesy

Engineering

Biology

Identification (biology)

Pace

Archaeology

Scope (computer science)

Computer science

Botany

Timeline

Risk analysis (engineering)

Drug

Drug discovery

Waste management

Bioinformatics

Geography

Repurposing

Drug development

Pharmacology

Data science

Drug repositioning

Medicine

Programming language

History

Nature Reviews Drug Discovery

Drug repurposing — a strategy for identifying new uses for approved or investigational drugs that are outside the scope of the original medical indication — has the potential for greater success rates and reduced costs compared with developing entirely new drugs. Pirmohamed and colleagues present approaches used for drug repurposing, discuss the challenges faced by the repurposing community and recommend innovative ways by which these challenges could be addressed. 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. Various data-driven and experimental approaches have been suggested for the identification of repurposable drug candidates; however, there are also major technological and regulatory challenges that need to be addressed. In this Review, we present approaches used for drug repurposing (also known as drug repositioning), discuss the challenges faced by the repurposing community and recommend innovative ways by which these challenges could be addressed to help realize the full potential of drug repurposing.

Drug repurposing: progress, challenges and recommendations