Finding new indications for current medications or potential therapeutic candidates is known as drug repurposing. Drugs or candidates include those that are currently undergoing clinical trials and relevant to multiple diseases, drugs that have failed to show efficacy for a specific indication during clinical trials but have no significant safety concerns, drugs that have been discontinued, drugs that are still being actively pursued, and drugs whose patents are about to expire. Opportunities for drug repositioning might come through indirect observation as well as intentional collaboration with the involvement of doctors and patients. In this article let us look at how drug repurposing can revolutionize patient care<. The level of engagement must enable patients to move from the role of basic participant to the mid-level informational role, and finally to the highest-level collaborative role.
In order to find new chances for drug repurposing, there is an opportunity to directly engage patients through crowdsourcing and patient journey mapping as well as indirectly through patient health information. Here are a few ways that offer on initiatives started by a range of stakeholders, including patients, to identify medications that may be candidates for drug repurposing.
Social networking websites allow doctors and patients to collaborate on a diagnosis, especially in the case of rare diseases. Patients can interact more with one another and with doctors as they work to grasp their recent diagnosis and find the cause of their symptoms through improved connectivity. Identify new drug repurposing opportunities and gain insights into new treatment options, also take into account the need to assimilate and communicate the necessary information to patients, doctors, and advocates (including molecules approved for human use, such as pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, and other products). For instance, knowledge of approved medications or treatments whose pharmacology may be linked to a particular physiological system or gene may reveal new treatment options and opportunities for drug repurposing; of course, the information should be simple enough for both professionals and lay people to understand. Similar to this, EspeRare – is a nonprofit organisation that works with patient groups and other important stakeholders to identify current compounds' potential to meet urgent treatment needs in rare diseases. The potential exists to involve patients earlier in the process, even though the main objective is to enable the translational exploration of untapped opportunities from the preclinical to clinical stage through partnerships with academia and the private sector, with patient groups providing access to patients for clinical and commercial development. Getting information from patients about significant end points, disease experiences (patient reported outcomes), and anticipated treatment advantages is one suggestion for improving patient involvement. In this way, the patient can advance from being a research participant to a source of information, a consultant, and finally to the highest level of involvement as a coresearcher.
Through citizen science, science is brought outside of the conventional academic or industrial settings and into the general public. To find novel indications for active drug candidates, Transparency Life Sciences (TLS) employs Indication Finder, a crowdsourcing technology based on surveys. Participants are given background information before answering questions on problems in developing particular chemicals. Survey responses are combined, given to the audience for analysis and discussion, and the resulting data is then selected by specialists. The TLS Protocol Builder, a crowdsourcing platform for building clinical trials in collaboration with researchers, physicians, and patients has the potential to be used to develop specific candidates. Through this discovery and design process, patients can be involved and are involved. Through this discovery and design process, patients can be involved and are involved.
It is well known that off-label drug prescribing is widespread in the cancer field. In the USA, off-label usage of pharmaceuticals or biological therapies for cancer is estimated by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN). For instance, 78 and 75% of patients with breast or lung cancer received medications from the US FDA, but it's important to highlight that 68 and 95% of these medications were used for off-label purposes that the FDA had not allowed. Researchers believe that monitoring off-label medicine and indication use might be helpful for learning more about unique risk-benefit ratios for particular indications. For instance, the Repurposing medications in Oncology (ReDO) Project aims to find new applications for well-known and well-characterized noncancer medications. The researchers admit that information made available as part of the ReDO project may give clinicians caring for patients with advanced cancer new directions to investigate when using drugs outside of their approved labels and clinical trials. Studies have suggested that practising physicians can play a crucial role in field discovery, and it is clear that doctors and their patients are underutilised sources of priceless knowledge. It is envisaged that stakeholders will have the chance to clarify formal drug repurposing prospects by including these stakeholders through crowdsourcing, codesign, and patient communities.
Although lead patients should be sought out to enable patient-centric drug discovery and patient-centric clinical trial design, the traditional concept of value chain partner presupposes engagement of the patient and patient advocacy groups during the later stages of drug development. We can argue that mutual participation will provide the insight necessary to build individualised, more holistic treatment platforms for diseases with few treatment options and for end points and symptoms of value when patients themselves look for drug repurposing options. Direct, observant, or analytical engagement tactics are all viable options. With the widespread use of technical tools to map the patient journey and provide patient access to electronic health data, we may anticipate that patient involvement will go from the intermediate level of informational interaction to the highest degree of collaborative interaction on the previously described continuum. Engagement earlier in the drug repurposing process can ease patient frustration, provide confidence in the regulatory drug discovery and development process, and ensure that quality data can be collected from patients. Patients are willing to seek alternative solutions, especially where there aren't many treatment options. Drug repurposing programmes can ultimately adopt an inclusive approach through the development of a holistic treatment platform that includes both conventional and customised nonconventional treatments if patients can give more insight into their expectations regarding the management of disease and health.
