Syreon Research Institute is joining the consortium of REMEDi4ALL, an ambitious EU-funded research initiative launching to drive forward the repurposing of medicines in Europe

REMEDi4ALL, an ambitious EU-funded research initiative, launches to drive forward the repurposing of medicines in Europe

The project is expected to make a major leap forward in drug repurposing or finding new therapeutic options for existing drugs, in areas with high unmet medical needs. 

• It will receive 23M euros from Horizon Europe over the next 5 years to

• develop an innovation platform supporting promising, high-impact drug repurposing projects championed by patients in any phase of development and disease area;
• establish a global community that contributes to informing and shaping policy and advancing debate and knowledge exchange worldwide. 

• EATRIS, the European infrastructure for translational medicine, will lead this multidisciplinary consortium involving 24 European organizations with the common goal of making cost-effective repurposed medicines more widely available.

Amsterdam, 1st September 2022

 

REMEDi4ALL launched yesterday with the aim of making a major leap forward in drug repurposing. This promising approach to drug development, consisting of the identification, testing, and validation of new therapeutic indications for existing medications, is a developing field but faces numerous barriers and systemic inefficiencies. Still, its potential to significantly bring down times and costs of drug development – since it focuses on already approved, discontinued, shelved or investigational therapeutics - makes this novel strategy attractive for rare and neglected conditions, cancer, emerging public health threats, such as COVID-19 and new drug combinations. It also facilitates the building of more sustainable health systems.

To advance knowledge in this field and address substantial obstacles -fragmented and siloed research; non-standardized datasets; heterogeneous quality of computational tools; poor patient engagement or lack of incentives and policies to support and enhance drug repurposing- the European Union (EU) through the Horizon Europe (HE) program will invest 23 million euros in REMEDi4ALL over the next 5 years. It is expected that, due to REMEDi4ALL, more (and better) repurposed therapeutics will be widely available thanks to more agile, cutting-edge development processes, ultimately contributing to increased sustainability of health systems.     

A favourable eco-system for drug repurposing

The project kicks off with the ambition of establishing a European research and innovation eco-system that facilitates fast and cost-effective patient-centric development and access to repurposed medicines. To this end, REMEDi4ALL will: 

• build a state-of-the-art platform to provide expertise and services across the complete value chain (scientific, methodological, financial, legal, regulatory, intellectual property) for patient-centric medicine repurposing at every development stage and in any disease area.
• assemble advanced in silico tools for Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), open datasets and tools and expertise required to understand the mechanism of action of specific medicines.
• create a global community of practice connected in a think-tank-like environment through impactful multidisciplinary activities and events.
• train and educate the next generation of researchers, clinicians, patients, policymakers, regulators and funders in cutting-edge drug repurposing tools and processes.
• favour dialogue and debate to advance policy and fair access to repurposed medicines across the EU. 

REMEDi4ALL has selected four medicine repurposing projects in different stages of development to demonstrate the viability of the newly created platform. Each project covers a different therapeutic area with high unmet medical needs– pancreatic cancer, COVID-19, rare diseases and ultra-rare diseases. These projects will first be onboarded to ensure a patient-centric approach before testing all elements of the platform to optimise its tools and services.

 

A multidisciplinary effort to cover every aspect of drug repurposing

The REMEDi4ALL consortium brings together a unique combination of expertise to address the complexities of drug repurposing. Under the leadership of EATRIS, the European infrastructure for translational medicine, 24 organisations in the fields of clinical and translational research, clinical operations, patient engagement and education, regulatory framework, funding, governance, Health Technology Assessment (HTA) or pricing and reimbursement will closely collaborate to make drug repurposing mainstream. 

“It’s an enormous privilege to work with this team of leading international experts, institutions and patient representatives in such an important and high potential area for European health. REMEDI4ALL will truly transform drug repurposing by making the process more transparent, efficient and – most importantly – completely patient-centred” expressed Anton Ussi, CEO at EATRIS ERIC.

In this project, SRI leads a Work Package with the aim to review, debate and advance the European regulatory and pharmaceutical policy environment for repurposed medicines. As a collaborator in another two Work Packages, Syreon will also aid in building and strengthening the funding practices of drug repurposing and provide support regarding the health technology assessment of demonstrator and user projects at an early stage to facilitate their timely reimbursement - and through that – wide accessibility for patients.