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New platform for drug repurposing has received EU subsidy
The European Commission has awarded 23 million euros to set up a new platform for drug repurposing: applying already existing medicines to diseases other than those for which they were ever developed. Over the next seven years, UM will develop the REPO4EU (Precision drug REPurpOsing For Europe) platform together with international partners.
Over the next 7 years, 28 partners from 10 countries (the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Spain, Sweden, Romania, Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland and the United States) will join forces to create a unique platform for drug repurposing. The ultimate goal of REPO4EU (Precision drug REPurpOsing For Europe) is to build an online platform for using medicines differently.
Drug repurposing
Harald Schmidt, professor of pharmacology at UM and coordinator of the project, says that the idea of drug repurposing is quite simple: “if we can understand the underlying mechanisms of a specific disease for which we have a drug, then we can also reuse that drug for another disease that shares these mechanisms”. Only this is not happening yet. According to the researchers, this is mainly due to the way we define diseases and approach drug development. Most underlying disease mechanisms are not understood and are thus more likely to be treated symptomatically. When someone has intestinal problems, he or she goes to a gastroenterologist. This person then prescribes medication aimed at the specific complaint. But, how does the specialist know whether the problems lie in other clinical disciplines and whether another drug does not work better?
Systems Medicine
REPO4EU is based on the belief in systems medicine. This is a fairly new view of medicine that focuses not on the symptoms of disease, but on the underlying molecular or genetic causes. Systems medicine opposes the 19th-century view of medicine, in which diseases were classified on the basis of symptoms and the human body was divided into clinical disciplines. By focusing on causes, it is possible to better examine where similarities lie between different syndromes. Then it may well be that a medicine can be used to treat multiple diseases, or that doctors have to work together in a multidisciplinary team to treat certain diseases.
Expected results
In addition to better and integrated treatment of clinical pictures, there are more advantages to the use of existing medicines. The development time of drugs is expected to decrease. Existing medicines can also be approved faster than new medicines. This saves costs and accelerates the development of treatments for currently chronic diseases.
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https://www.mumc.nl/actueel/nieuws/nieuw-europees-project-moet-hokjes-denken-geneeskunde-tegengaan - Original title:
New European project to combat pigeonholing in medicine - Target audience:
Healthcare Professionals, Policymakers, Students - Datum:
2022-09-07