Rediscovering Existing Drugs
This article was originally published in Start Up
Executive Summary
There's been a lot of talk lately about unlocking the hidden value from existing products, that is, drugs that have gone all the way from pure discovery, through the FDA regulatory process and into the hands of patients. These are the industry's greatest assets; they've already distinguished themselves from millions of other compounds by passing the myriad tests related to disease relevancy, safety, efficacy, and more safety, since safety isn't ultimately known until drugs disseminate through the treatment population, years after approval. Recently, there's been a shift to applying the industrial revolution in de novo drug discovery--the tools for screening and assaying libraries of random compounds-to existing drugs, as companies look for new products by reprofiling, repurposing, and redirecting the development of old drugs.
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OsteoCorp Inc.
The class of drugs called beta-blockers--long used for heart disease and migraines--also prompts an increase in bone mass. OsteoCorp will repurpose beta blockers to build bone in the treatment of conditions like bone cancer and osteoporosis.
Jumpstart to Products
Discovery research is an ever more difficult investment to justify, so companies are placing greater emphasis on mining discoveries that have already been made but whose real value remains unexploited. Big Pharma, in part inhibited by habit and current infrastructure, has not moved aggressively in the new direction-but the jumpstart model now dominates small-company strategies and will increasingly translate into the rest of the industry.
Ascend Therapeutics Inc.
Ascend Therapeutics aims to develop two non-hormone drugs delivered via hydroalcoholic gels that penetrate quickly into the skin.