The Anticancer Fund and GlobalCures are two separate organizations, but both are dedicated to developing new treatment options for cancer patients. Independently, we both stumbled onto positive clinical trial results involving repurposed drugs that had apparently gone completely unnoticed – and that seemed shocking. After performing due diligence, we realized that the common theme behind these neglected potential therapies was the lack of financial incentive – the treatments had been dubbed “financial orphans” because they did not offer commercial opportunities and return on investment.

In some ways, the pharma industry is very active in drug repurposing, but usually only for young, proprietary drugs; tocilizumab, for instance, has been repurposed many times. Often, the drugs that are of greatest interest to repurposing researchers are generics because of their low costs. The potential for return on investment with repurposed generics, however, is constrained as other manufacturers can profit from the positive results generated by investment in new trials and new licenses. In some cases, manufacturers are looking to reformulations as a means to secure IP protection of their repurposing investment, but when it comes to using existing medicines “as-is” for other diseases there is a definite funding gap that needs to be filled.