Continued development of drugs: the path of thioguanine
Simsek, M.; de Boer, N.K.H.; Mulder, C.J.J.
Nederlands Tijdschrift Voor Geneeskunde 162: D1757
2018
ISSN/ISBN: 1876-8784 PMID: 29350120 Document Number: 695362
Continued development of existing drugs ('drug rediscovery') may offer new therapeutic options and be cost-effective. Rediscovered drugs are commonly prescribed off-label, although licensing can be important to allow safe and controlled prescription of the drugs to patients. Licensing of a new indication for a generic drug, however, is a complicated process since there is no blueprint for this and there is little interest from the pharmaceutical industry due to an unattractive cost-recovery model. In this article, we illustrate the successful license-extension for thioguanine - initially developed in 1950 for leukaemia - as a new treatment for patients with inflammatory bowel disease.