Medicine repurposing is a strategy to identify new uses for existing medicines for the purpose of addressing areas of unmet medical need. This paper aims to provide horizon scanning intelligence on repurposed medicines that are evaluated by non-commercial organisations such as academia, and highlights opportunities for further research to improve patient health outcomes. A scan of the clinical landscape of non-commercially sponsored repurposed medicines is routinely conducted by the NIHR Innovation Observatory (IO). This ongoing project involves a horizon scan of clinical trial registries and the internal horizon scanning Medicines Innovation Database (MInD) of the NIHR IO to identify potential candidate medicines used as monotherapy or in combination to treat new indications outside the scope of their licensed indication. In addition to making these data publicly available, the output also supports the NHS England Medicines Repurposing Programme (MRP). The snapshot scan reported here (trials completing April 2020 to March 2023) identified a total of 528 technologies (meaning, a single product or combination of medicinal products targeting a specific indication in one or more related trials). The technologies were classified according to their characteristics and targeted therapeutic indications as well as revealing the least treated disease conditions. The candidate medicines identified in this scan could potentially receive tailored support towards adoption into practice and policy. The NIHR IO regularly provides this scan as a source of intelligence on repurposed medicines. This provides valuable insights into innovation trends, gaps, and areas of unmet clinical need.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

This project is funded by the NIHR (HSRIC-2016-10009)/Innovation Observatory]. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.

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