In place of using a new treatment or medicines, a recent study has found that already available medicines can be refurbished or can be combined with any other drug to treat diseases like bacterial, viral or other infections. According to the researchers, the currently available drugs for certain conditions can be repurposed alone or taken in combination with other drugs to treat infections.
The results suggested that such a plan should be followed because the development of new medicines and vaccines take a lot of time and resource. Moreover, the speed of developing new medicines for drug-resistant pathogens has not kept up with the evolution of these pathogens.
Drug repurposing is the term given to practice of reusing the existing drugs and compounds to treat infections.
Lead study author Dr. Wei Zheng, said, "Historically, drug repurposing for outbreaks of bacterial, viral, and related infections has been an underutilized vehicle for discovery of novel interventions due to the limited potential for commercialization. Thus, involvement of non-profit entities in the discovery process for such unmet needs is crucial,"
"To combat global challenges caused by drug-resistant pathogens, a new model of translational research including government, academic researchers and private drug industry is needed," Zheng added.
The research appears in British Journal of Pharmacology.
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Drug repurposing is application of known drugs and medicines to treat new infections. This practice has been growing in importance in the last few years as many pharmaceutical companies find their drug pipelines drying up. Moreoever, developement of new technique takes time and eat immense amount of resources.
(With ANI Inputs)
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