Evaluating the Discovering New Therapeutic Uses for Existing Molecules program

In putting the agenda and speakers together for the World Drug Repositioning Congress USA, I came up with a lot of opposing views on the NIH’s pilot program on the subject.

Of course that for a pilot program, there are no expectations that the project will be flawless, in the meantime it should be targeted to really encourage and set the conditions for further and optimized drug repositioning collaborations.

What can be learned from other similar collaboration programs like the MCR in Europe? Should NCATS invest in its own translational research programs or should it continue to fund third parties drug repositioning efforts?

Discussions about what can be done differently to make these multi-stakeholders collaborations more efficient are part of the major focus of US’s World Drug Repositioning Congress this December in DC.