Drugs Behind Ozempic and Wegovy Are Being Repurposed — Here Are 5 Others
In 1957, a German pharmaceutical company introduced Thalidomide, a drug meant to combat anxiety and insomnia. It was widely believed — incorrectly — to be safe to take during pregnancy, and many European physicians recommended it for morning sickness.
In the U.S., a reviewer with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had her doubts and denied approval. Her call proved to be right, and in 1961, Thalidomide was yanked from the European markets for causing thousands of severe birth defects, according to a report in Wiley.
But that wasn’t the end of Thalidomide. It was later approved to treat certain cancers like multiple myeloma as well as skin lesions associated with Hansen’s disease. Thalidomide isn’t the only drug to make a comeback. Many other drugs have also been repurposed.
“A drug used for one condition that is found useful for a different one. For example, many anti-inflammatory drugs have been found useful in treating cancer patients,” Catherine H. Schein, a professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, told Discover.
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What Is a Repurposed Drug?
Pharmaceutical companies spend as much as $2 billion and 15 years on drug development, but most never make it to market, according to a report in Progress in Molecular Biology and Translational Science. Fewer than 10 percent receive FDA approval due to safety or effectiveness concerns.
So if a drug wins approval, it’s advantageous for companies to find other uses, according to a study in Advances in Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences. GLP-1 receptor agonists like Ozempic and Wegovy, for example, were initially approved to treat diabetes. More recently, they have been given the green light to treat other conditions.
“It would have been hard, even five years ago, to predict that a drug that required regular injections, whose [side] effect is nausea and food avoidance, would have become so successful in a variety of areas, from weight loss to therapy for alcohol and drug addiction,” Schein said to Discover.
Although Wegovy has become a household name, there are plenty of other lesser-known drugs that have also been repurposed. Here are a few others:
1. Minoxidil (Loniten)
Original Use: Hypertension (1979)
Repurposed Use: Hair loss
Minoxidil was introduced in pill form and worked by widening blood vessels and reducing blood pressure. Unwanted hair growth was an adverse side effect that alerted scientists to minoxidil’s potential for treating hair loss, according to a report in Drug Design, Development and Therapy. In 1988, the FDA approved a topical formulation for the treatment of male pattern baldness. Approval for treating women’s hair loss followed in the 1990s.
2. Dupilumab (Dupixent)
Original use: Eczema (2017)
Repurposed use: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, nasal polyps.
Dupilumab blocks the interleukin‑4 receptor alpha subunit. With the immune response in check, people with eczema can experience skin healing. For people with asthma, the drug can reduce lung inflammation and improve breathing. Reduced inflammation can also tame nasal polyps and help ease congestion, according to a report in StatPearls.
3. Cariprazine (Vraylar)
Original use: Schizophrenia treatment (2015)
Repurposed use: Bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder
Cariprazine is an antipsychotic that regulates brain chemistry, specifically dopamine and serotonin levels. Rather than fully blocking dopamine and serotonin signaling, it helps stabilize these systems when activity is too high or too low. For people with bipolar disorder or major depressive disorder, balancing compounds can reduce the extreme highs that lead to mania or lows that prompt depression, according to findings in CNS Spectrums.
4. Azidothymidine (AZT)
Original use: Cancer treatment
Repurposed use: HIV/AIDs antiretroviral (1987)
In 1964, scientists with the National Cancer Institute developed a compound that would be later known as AZT, but as the Journal of Pharma Insights and Research so delicately described, it “failed.” Researchers revisited AZT in the 1980s during the AIDs epidemic and found it suppressed the virus from replicating, according to the NIH. In 1987, AZT was the first AIDs treatment to receive FDA approval. AZT came with many harsh side effects, and although it is still used today, it is part of a multi-drug therapy along with other antiretrovirals.
5. Risankizumab-rzaa (Skyrizi)
Original use: Plaque psoriasis (2019)
Repurposed Use: Psoriatic arthritis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis.
Risankizumab-rzaa takes a more targeted approach to curbing the production of inflammatory cytokines by inhibiting interleukin-23. For people with psoriasis, this can mean fewer skin lesions. People with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis can experience less intestinal inflammation, according to a study in Springer Nature.
This article is not offering medical advice and should be used for informational purposes only.
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