Non-profits push for drug repurposing for neurodegenerative diseases

The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research and the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation urged not-for-profits, industry and legislators to create incentives for repurposing drugs for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. The foundations highlighted the lack of commercial incentives for testing approved drugs in the indications and made several policy recommendations -- such as granting data exclusivity extensions for small molecules when applying for new indications; creating an accelerated approval pathway for repurposed drugs; granting Priority Review vouchers for repurposed drugs targeting high-need conditions; and creating an adaptive licensing pilot program.

MJFF and ADFF also suggested that not-for-profits and/or government directly fund smaller proof-of-concept trials to encourage larger investment from government and industry, and called for increased collaboration between not-for-profits, government and regulators. The foundations said the New Therapeutic Uses program, which connects pharmas and researchers to repurpose compounds that were discontinued for scientific or commercial reasons, could serve as a model for future collaborative efforts. The program is part of NIH's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) (see SciBX: Science-Business eXchange, Jan. 30). ...