Lewis, Richard (2021) Best practices for repurposing studies. Journal of computer-aided molecular design, 36 (1). pp. 1-5. ISSN 1573-4951

Abstract

ll I can say is that on this earth there are pestilences
and there are victims– and as far as possible one must
refuse to be on the side of the pestilence.
—Albert Camus, La Peste [1].
As humanity is challenged with new pandemics and diseases,
there is a desire to find treatments in a much faster
time-frame than traditional discovery efforts can attain. One
strategy has been the repurposing of compounds that have
demonstrated efficacy and/or safety in human trials (see the
articles in the special issue of Drug Discovery Today [2]) or
through common usage. The goal is to identify compounds
that may proceed directly to human efficacy studies. If a
compound requires optimisation, then all its advantages are
gone, and there is little to choose between it and any other
hit structure, in terms of time to the clinic, the key metric.
During the current Covid-19 pandemic, many papers have
been written with the aim of identifying possible candidates
for the repurposing strategy, but which unfortunately have
been lacking in the proper controls or understanding to be
accepted in this journal. This brief editorial tries to lay out
some of the issues that authors should address in their studies.
We do not hold a position for or against repurposing,
but we must try to maintain certain scientific standards on
behalf of our readership. We also have a duty not to mislead,
resulting in studies that cost much human effort and divert
resources from more promising areas, but to inform with
genuine data.

Item Type:	Article
Date Deposited:	07 Dec 2021 00:45
Last Modified:	07 Dec 2021 00:45
URI:	https://oak.novartis.com/id/eprint/45497