Role of Drug Repurposing in Sustainable Drug Discovery

The document discusses drug repurposing, a method of finding new uses for approved, discontinued, or investigational drugs, which reduces redundant testing, shortens development timelines, and is economically beneficial. It uses artificial intelligence, machine learning, and bioinformatics for structured approaches, and includes methods like signature mapping, pathway matching, and high-throughput screening. Despite challenges like legal issues and data retrieval problems, drug repurposing has been successful, with examples like minoxidil, originally for ulcers, then arterial hypertension, and finally hair loss. It was approved by the FDA in 1988 for androgenetic alopecia and alopecia areata. Currently, about a third of drug approvals are repurposed drugs. The future of drug repurposing could be improved by more collaboration between the pharmaceutical industry and academia, focusing on orphan diseases and rare disorders, and using personalized medicine.