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Analysis published by PrecisionLife reveals potential to systematically reposition hundreds of patented drugs into new indications to address unmet medical needs
- PrecisionLife’s unique combinatorial analytics approach to understanding the drivers of disease biology in patient subgroups has revealed hundreds of new commercial opportunities to reposition patented drugs and drug candidates into novel indications, with significant near-term additional revenue potential for pharmaceutical companies
- Careful indication extension or repositioning of drugs coupled with patient stratification biomarkers to identify responders can provide a faster, cheaper and derisked route to the approval of new therapies, with major benefits to patients with unmet medical needs
- The peer-reviewed study highlighted 477 potential repositioning opportunities in over 35 secondary disease indications across the development and marketed drug pipelines of 177 companies
OXFORD, UK June 13, 2022 – PrecisionLife Limited, a global techbio company generating the deepest insights into disease biology to create novel precision medicine opportunities in chronic diseases, has published data showing the significant opportunities for biopharma companies to rapidly develop new treatments for patients with unmet medical needs through precision repositioning.
“The successful global effort to find effective interventions for the most severe COVID-19 patients demonstrated the value of reusing current drugs in new indications” said Dr Steve Gardner, CEO of PrecisionLife and co-author on a new paper published in a Cell Patterns special edition focusing on AI Drug Discovery. “Generic drugs such as dexamethasone were rapidly tested, and some proved effective in managing severely ill patients during the pandemic.“
Now a new peer-reviewed publication, entitled ‘Systematic Indication Extension for Drugs Using Patient Stratification Insights generated by Combinatorial Analytics’[1] has revealed that pharmaceutical companies are sitting on a gold mine in their patented drug portfolios, with the potential to bring new treatments to market faster and cheaper across more than 35 chronic diseases.
The data shows 477 potential repositioning opportunities within the pipelines and marketed assets of 177 biopharma companies, based on deep analysis of shared mechanisms and patient stratification biomarkers in the secondary indications. Such therapies could address the unmet medical needs of millions of patients with multi-billion dollar additional revenue potential.
Indication extension or repositioning of drugs, is the identification of additional therapeutic indications for patented medicines, an opportunity that can create additional returns on the capital invested in a drug’s original R&D. Such opportunities arise because the biological mechanisms driving patients’ disease are often common between multiple diseases. High-resolution stratification of patients allows developers to find drugs whose targets are involved in causing multiple diseases within mechanistically defined patient subgroups.
PrecisionLife’s proprietary combinatorial analytics approach to patient stratification underpins its INDx indication extension platform. With its unique insights, PrecisionLife has been able to systematically match the patented drug assets of hundreds of pharmaceutical companies to clinically relevant patient subgroups who will benefit from treatments targeting the mechanisms and biological drivers of their disease in secondary indications. Further checks for dosage, route of administration, toxicity, and freedom to operate are used to validate all opportunities.
Repositioning opportunities cited in the publication include a specific mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist for patients with renal complications arising from type 2 diabetes and an IL6R antagonist useful in a subgroup of ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) patients.
“Patients need better therapeutic options, and the pace and productivity of the pharma industry needs to improve. Combinatorial analytics and high-resolution patient stratification have the potential to enhance the rate of innovation across the drug discovery industry. This can reduce drug development risk and increase revenue at the same time as offering patients the hope of rapid access to new, more personalized therapeutic options for a wide range of underserved diseases and patient subgroups” concludes Dr Gardner.
Figure 1: Analysis of pipeline and marketed drugs where potential precision repositioning indication extension opportunities were found, shown by therapy area and drug development phase.
[1] Das S, Taylor K, Beaulah S, Gardner S. Systematic indication extension for drugs using patient stratification insights generated by combinatorial analytics. Cell Patterns. 2022 June; 3(6). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patter.2022.100496