January 17, 2018

Drug Repurposing Database for Epilepsy

A database focused on repurposing drugs to treat epilepsy has been released by the University of Liverpool. The aim of the project is to help prioritize the most promising candidates for drug repurposing.

Repurposing drugs offers the potential of significant savings in the time and cost of drug development by discovering new indications for approved drugs. Given that 20 to 30 percent of individuals with epilepsy do not respond to traditional medications, there is a need to identify new antiepileptic drugs.

The database is reliable: 94 percent of the included drugs have corroborative evidence of efficacy in animal models. The database includes many drugs that are appealing candidates for repurposing, as they are widely accepted by prescribers and patients.