Medication Repurposing The Backbone Of Medicine

Nikki Attkisson | Last Updated : April 12, 2021

The act of discovering new uses for old meds – called repurposing or repositioning drugs – isn’t new. 

The most acclaimed (or maybe scandalous) model is sildenafil – otherwise known as Viagra. Initially created to treat hypertension, the little blue pill got US Food and Drug Administration endorsement in 1998 to treat erectile brokenness and immediately turned into a blockbuster drug. Another outstanding model is thalidomide. Given to ladies in the last part of the 1950s to forestall morning ailment – and before long found to cause serious birth absconds – it got a second life in 1998 as therapy for infection (presently called Hansen’s sickness), and afterward a third life in 2006 when it was endorsed to treat numerous myeloma, malignancy of the bone marrow. 

Medication Repurposing The Backbone Of Medicine

At the point when Covid-19 turned into a pandemic a year ago, the race was on to discover any therapy that could help against the novel infection that seriously nauseated and surprisingly slaughtered a few, while leaving others totally solid. 

Medication Repurposing The Backbone Of Medicine

One alternative was growing new drugs that explicitly focused on SARS-CoV-2, the infection that causes Covid-19, without any preparation. New medicines, like monoclonal antibodies, are the aftereffect of those endeavors. Yet, creating, testing, and afterward getting an endorsement from the FDA, also making the foundation for the creation and circulation of another drug, all require some serious energy – time the world didn’t, and still doesn’t, have. Different scientists immediately started to glance around at what was at that point available, in medical clinics and drug stores, and on pharmacy racks. 

“The benefit of medication repurposing is that that medication is as of now affirmed. It’s as of now gone through the administrative interactions to show that the medicine is protected and compelling for something. So in the event that you can discover extra uses for that drug, you definitely know there’s a decent security profile,” clarified Dr. David Fajgenbaum, an immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania, and the overseer of the Center for Cytokine Storm Treatment and Laboratory. Also: Cheap, nonexclusive renditions of numerous more established prescriptions exist on the grounds that their licenses have terminated. “It’s simply an issue of coordinating with the correct medication to the correct sickness,” Fajgenbaum said. “Fortunately, there are more than 2,000 medications that are as of now affirmed by the FDA for at any rate one illness, and we’ve discovered that there are numerous different infections that those medications can likewise be repurposed for.” 

Truth be told, Fajgenbaum said he has “committed [his] life towards propelling medication repurposing” for infections without explicit medicines. His enthusiasm is driven to some degree by his own insight. In 2010, while in clinical school, he previously turned out to be sick with Castleman sickness, an uncommon immune system problem that, as Covid-19, can trigger the resistant framework to abruptly flood the body with fiery synthetics in a purported cytokine storm; the outcome can be tissue and organ harm, and here and there death. Castleman sickness brought Fajgenbaum near death multiple times – until he tracked down his own therapy in a repurposed drug.”I’m really alive today due to a medication that was created 30 years prior for another condition that we recognized through an exceptionally efficient interaction and we figured it could assist with saving my life,” he said. “Here I am, more than seven years after the fact.” During the time he was debilitated, he established the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network, a worldwide activity committed to battling Castleman illness. CDCN’s community-oriented strategy for getting sorted out clinical examination later turned into a model for different illnesses without medicines.


Nikki Attkisson

With over 15 years as a practicing journalist, Nikki Attkisson found herself at Powdersville Post now after working at several other publications. She is an award-winning journalist with an entrepreneurial spirit and worked as a journalist covering technology, innovation, environmental issues, politics, health etc. Nikki Attkisson has also worked on product development, content strategy, and editorial management for numerous media companies. She began her career at local news stations and worked as a reporter in national newspapers.

Sign Up For Our Daily Dose Of Hot News