Repurposed Medicines: A Scan of the Non-commercial Clinical Research Landscape
Abstract
Medicine repurposing is a strategy to identify new uses for the existing medicines for the purpose of addressing areas of unmet medical need. This paper aims to provide horizon scanning intelligence on repurposed medicines that are evaluated by non-commercial organizations such as academia and highlights opportunities for further research to improve patient health outcomes. A scan of the clinical landscape of non-commercially sponsored repurposed medicines is routinely conducted by the NIHR Innovation Observatory (IO). This ongoing project involves a horizon scan of clinical trial registries and the IO's internal horizon scanning Medicines Innovation Database to identify potential candidate medicines used as monotherapy or in combination to treat new indications outside the scope of their licensed indication. In addition to making these data publicly available, the output also supports the NHS England Medicines Repurposing Programme. The snapshot scan reported here (trials completing April 2020-March 2023) identified a total of 528 technologies (meaning, a single product or combination of medicinal products targeting a specific indication in one or more related trials). The technologies were classified according to their characteristics and targeted therapeutic indications as well as revealing the least treated disease conditions. The candidate medicines identified in this scan could potentially receive tailored support toward adoption into practice and policy. The NIHR IO…
Read the paper
Related studies
- Meta-analysis and the science of research synthesis
- Rapid and sustained symptom reduction following psilocybin treatment for anxiety and depression in patients with life-threatening cancer: a randomized controlled trial
- Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial
- Convalescent plasma in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised controlled, open-label, platform trial
- Disease Free Survival and Local Recurrence for Laparoscopic Resection Compared to Open Resection of Stage II-III Rectal Cancer: Follow up Results of the ACOSOG Z6051 Randomized Controlled Trial
- The effects of a course of intranasal oxytocin on social behaviors in youth diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders: a randomized controlled trial
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.