Evaluating the potential of drug repurposing for rare disease and Covid-19

This webinar was held on Wednesday 8th April 2020, shortly after the onset of the UK National lockdown in response to the global Covid-19 pandemic. It focused upon drug repurposing for both rare diseases and Covid-19.

With a global pandemic in full swing, there was an essential worldwide research effort to identify potential treatments, cures, and vaccines for Covid-19. A large number of companies and researchers were turning to drug repurposing as a potential solution which posed the question– what is repurposing and why is it such an attractive route for drug development?

For many years, Beacon has been discussing and promoting drug repurposing as an essential tool for the development of new treatments for rare diseases. In this webinar, Rick Thompson outlined the basics of this route to drug development, explained why it is such an appealing approach in tackling both covid-19 and rare conditions, and highlighted how the rare disease community has been spearheading advances in drug repurposing over the last few years.