Is drug repurposing worth the effort?
Bethany A. Halford · C&EN Global Enterprise · 2021
When SARS-CoV-2 began to spread around the globe in early 2020, doctors and scientists reached for every drug they could think of to fight the coronavirus and its deadly symptoms. Soon, hundreds of clinical trials had sprung up to test everything from aspirin to Zithromax in the hope that drugs from our vast pharmaceutical arsenal might be successfully repurposed in the fight against COVID-19. Drug repurposing involves taking an existing drug or drug candidate and using it for a medical condition that’s different from what it was originally developed to treat. The most well-known example is Viagra, which was originally conceived by Pfizer to treat hypertension and angina. The compound’s promise for treating erectile dysfunction emerged during clinical trials. That discovery was made serendipitously in the clinic. But about 20 years ago, scientists reasoned that they could conduct screenings in cells of vast libraries of approved drugs and molecules that