Drug repositioning, the process of finding new indications for existing drugs, presents a promising avenue for identifying better and safer treatments without the full cost or time required for de novo drug development. This young discipline has the potential to supplement flagging drug development pipelines, increase patient quality of life, and address areas of concern, such as rare and neglected diseases. In the past five years, government agencies, academic researchers, and the pharmaceutical industry have worked to move drug repositioning from a serendipitous event based on clinical observation, unfocused screening, and ‘happy accidents’ to a comprehensive and rational search for repositioning opportunities.
25 March, 2013
Numerous currently incurable human diseases arise from the loss or malfunction of highly specialized cell types that lack the capacity to regenerate due to diseases (e.g. heart attack, stroke), traumas (e.g. spinal cord injuries by accidents) or aging (e.g. blindness due to age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma). Recent advances in stem cell technologies have made regenerative medicine, once seen only in science fiction, a reachable reality. In this newsletter focusing on ‘Stem Cells’, we have solicited four articles to introduce some fundamental concepts of stem cells and review some of their immediate applications for disease modeling, drug discovery and toxicity screening as well as future possible therapies.
13 March, 2013
The latest issue of Drug Discovery Today is packed full of industry focused research articles, new developments in drug discovery, and expert comment and opinion.
04 March, 2013