Advertisement Feature Article:Stem cells could help uncover new uses for drugs

Sensitive detection of biomarkers can reveal pre-symptomatic diseases.

Using induced pluripotent stem cells for drug repurposing and testing pre-symptomatic diseases, are two ways a Japanese pharmaceutical company is innovating.

New drugs typically take 10 to 15 years to develop, and cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, with success rates at just a few percent. One of the biggest hurdles is clearing clinical trials in people. Many compounds that show promise in animal studies, flounder when used in people because they either prove ineffective or cause unacceptable side effects.

A useful way to simplify the problem of establishing whether a drug is safe for use in humans is to try applying existing drugs for conditions besides those they were originally developed for. Because they have already been shown to be safe for treating one condition, it is only necessary to establish they are effective for treating another condition and present no complications when used in the second way.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d42...Japanese pharmaceutical company is innovating.