Repurposed Drugs: Current Trends in Drug Discovery
Gatadi Srikanth, Durga Prasad Beda, Niggula Praveen Kumar · Pharmaceutical science. · 2024
Drug repurposing is a drug discovery strategy that involves identifying new therapeutic uses for existing drugs. Drug repurposing relies on the idea that a limited number of genes or gene products mediate biological processes and that several biological entities—such as transcripts, proteins, and genes—have pleiotropic effects and mediate similar tasks. Recently, drug repurposing has gained attention as a different approach that looks for novel uses for previously approved or rejected commercial medications to address conditions other than those they were designed for. It offers numerous benefits, such as faster development timelines, reduced costs, established safety profiles, and the potential for novel treatments for unmet medical needs. This chapter explains the current trends in drug discovery and future perspectives on repurposed drugs.