Drug Repurposing

Portfolio Overview

Our pharmacy shelves are packed with powerful drugs that may have more uses than we think. Repurposing these existing drugs can save and drastically improve lives of patients with no other options.

Unfortunately, an array of challenges and barriers leave many of these opportunities untapped. To date, Duke-Margolis has explored opportunities for policy solutions to address several disparate issues in drug repurposing:

• Establishing a drug repurposing ecosystem that can quickly and efficiently respond to pandemics and emerging health threats,
• Designing a financial “pull” incentive to solve for the market failure in repurposing generic drugs, and
• Exploring regulatory policy challenges and opportunities related to repurposing generic drugs.

Much potential value exists in drug repurposing (and repositioning), both in terms of health impact and making health care innovation more efficient and affordable. At Duke-Margolis, we aim to explore a wide range of policy solutions and opportunities to bring about more systematic and dedicated efforts to unlocking new uses of existing drugs.