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Scientific advice — is drug repurposing missing a trick?

Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology volume 14, pages 455–456 (2017)Cite this article

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Scientific Advice meetings are a mechanism to improve communications between drug developers and regulators during the drug-development process. While standard practice for industry, the benefits provided by these meetings are under-utilised by academia. In the context of drug repurposing, can scientific advice, as part of a proposed new R&D tax credits scheme, help to unblock some of the obstacles in the way to clinical adoption?

Drug repurposing is a drug-development strategy that seeks new indications for already-licensed medications — in contrast to the de novo development of new medicines or the reinvestigation of previously 'shelved' compounds. A number of commonly used drugs have been successfully repurposed for the treatment of conditions very different to their original indications. For example, a number of chemotherapeutics are now being used in clinical fields outside of oncology, including methotrexate, which is licensed for the treatment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis or psoriasis. By contrast, the number of non-oncological drugs that have been repurposed for use as anticancer drugs remains very low, despite an increasing level of interest in this drug-development pathway1. The apparent benefits of drug repurposing, including the availability of existing data on safety, tolerability, dosing, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics, can potentially expedite clinical evaluation and adoption. The potential societal benefits of exploiting an existing source of safe and effective medicines for new cancer treatments are also widely acknowledged2; these potential benefits include low drug costs, well-characterised safety profile and widespread drug availability.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Anticancer Fund, Brussels, 1853, Strombeek-Bever, Belgium

    Pan Pantziarka

  2. The George Pantziarka TP53 Trust, London, UK

    Pan Pantziarka

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  1. Pan Pantziarka
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Correspondence to Pan Pantziarka.

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Pantziarka, P. Scientific advice — is drug repurposing missing a trick?. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 14, 455–456 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2017.69

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