Impact of Drug Repurposing on New Drug Discovery: A Review
Komarla Kumarachari Rajasekhar, Kishore Bandarapalle, Mayandigari Guruva Reddy, Amruthapuri Ashok Kumar, Aithepalli Thanuja, Dondapati Tejaswi · Chemical Science and Engineering Research · 2023
Drug repositioning, commonly known as drug repurposing, is a process of identifying new therapeutic use(s) for already used, available, or old medications. It is an efficient strategy for discovering or synthesizing medicinal compounds with novel pharmacological or therapeutic applications. Usually, drug discovery has relied on a de novo design technique, which is expensive and takes years to produce a medicine before it can be sold. By implementing the drug repositioning method in their drug research and development programmes, numerous pharmaceutical companies have been creating new medications in recent years in response to the identification of novel biological targets. This strategy is extremely efficient, saves time, is cost effective, and has a minimal failure risk. It raises the effectiveness of a medicine by maximizing its therapeutic value. As a result, drug repositioning is a successful alternative to the standard drug discovery procedure. Pharmacological repositioning combines activity-based, experimental, and in silico, computational techniques to develop/identify new rational applications for drug compounds. As the efficacy and safety of the original drug have previously been thoroughly explored and approved by regulatory bodies, redirected based on a feasible target molecule to cure diseases that are very rare, difficult to treat, and untreated. Repositioning drugs offers a greater return at a reduced risk.