Repositioning, Reprofiling, Repurposing
Repositioning, reprofiling, repurposing. Whatever you call it, finding
new careers for old drugs is fast becoming big business. Considerable
revenues and savings are to there to be made in discovering alternative
purposes for known compounds.
As Nobel laureate James Black famously said, "The most fruitful basis of the
discovery of a new drug is to start with an old drug." With faith dwindling
in new technologies to drive the drug discovery engine, the need for
scientific approaches to cultivating new uses for existing drugs, or those
that are about to enter the market, is rising in importance.
You can read the complete article by David Bradley
on the Nature website.
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