Drug repurposing and it’s implications in therapy: an overview

Abstract

Drug Repurposing is finding new use of an already existing drug. It offers affordable, cheap and faster treatment. Drug repurposing has an additional advantage over new drug development because it lowers drug development costs as toxicity and other measures, including clinical trials, have already gone through them. However, there are few barriers which need to overcome like legal and economic barriers. Alternative drug development strategies are now being explored, such as the repurposing of existing drugs used to treat other diseases. This can save a considerable amount of time and money since the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and safety profiles of these drugs are already established, effectively enabling pre-clinical studies to be bypassed. Awareness and encouragement can promote the flourishing of drug repurposing, which holds a great future in the modern medical sector. Improvements in health care and nutrition have caused impressive improvements in life expectancy worldwide. Repurposing is an accelerated drug development path since existing drugs have clinical and pharmacokinetic evidence. New approaches to drug discovery, such as the re-use of patented medicines that are used to cure other diseases, are under debate. This can save significant time and money because these drugs' pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and safety profiles are already known, potentially enabling pre-clinical studies to override.