From repurposing to business through successful collaborations

In recent decades drug repurposing has grown in popularity and has gained even more attention after the FDA gave emergency authorization to several repurposed drugs for the treatment of Covid-19.However, in addition to the successes in drug repurposing there are also failures, and experts from both industry and academia are divided on whether drug repurposing can work as a systematic and profitable business model.Despite these different views, there is in general consensus about that multi parti collaborations, such as between pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions and non-profit organizations, work as a facilitator for drug repurposing.A recent publication1 provides a detailed overview of what in the literature is described as barriers for such collaborative initiatives. Some of these barriers will be looked at in the context of the business development-related objectives as formulated withing the REPO4EU Horizon Europe project, to see and discuss what might be required and what tools could be developed within the REPO4EU Horizon Europe project, to smoothen the path for successful collaborations between the relevant stakeholders in the drug repurposing field.