Drug Repurposing in Pancreatic Cancer: A Multi-Stakeholder Perspective to Improve Treatment Options for Pancreatic Cancer Patients

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer (PC) remains one of the most challenging malignancies to treat. Current therapeutic options are unsatisfactory, and there is an urgent need for more effective and less toxic drugs to improve the dismal prognosis of PC. In recent years, drug repurposing (DR) has emerged as an attractive strategy to identify novel treatments for PC by leveraging existing drugs approved for other indications. Through the use of electronic medical records, Artificial Intelligence, study of metabolic pathways, signalling pathways, and many other approaches, it has become much easier in recent years to identify potential novel uses for old drugs. Although policy, funding and research attention in this area are steadily growing, major challenges to efficient and effective patient-centric DR in PC need to be addressed. These include but are not limited to regulatory, financial and funding barriers and the lack of coordination and collaboration among several sectors and stakeholders. To explore the opportunities and challenges associated with DR in PC, a one-day multi-stakeholder meeting was held on 14^th of November 2023 in Brussels, Belgium as part of the REMEDi4ALL project. This meeting provided a platform for researchers, clinicians, industry representatives, funders, regulatory experts, and patient advocates to discuss and propose actions to optimize and accelerate DR in PC. Insights from this meeting support the potential of DR to enhance PC treatment options while highlighting the importance of systemic and supportive changes in the regulatory, policy and funding landscapes, interdisciplinary collaboration, data sharing, and patient involvement in driving therapeutic innovation. This summary highlights key outcomes and recommendations from the meeting in informing future efforts to advance DR initiatives in the context of PC.

Keywords: collaboration; drug repurposing; multi-stakeholder discussion; pancreatic cancer; patient centricity.

Figure 1

Program outline of the first REMEDi4ALL Multistakeholder Meeting “Drug Repurposing, an Attractive Strategy in Pancreatic Cancer Treatment?” held on the 14^th of November 2023 in Brussels.

Figure 2

Representatives of all key stakeholder groups were involved in the workshop. Workshop participants included researchers/clinicians (31.6%), industry representatives (15.8%), funders (15.8%), regulators (2.6%) and those from the patient community (34.2%).

Figure 3

Challenges and hurdles identified during the workshop. Although drug repurposing (DR) represents a valuable and attractive strategy for the treatment of pancreatic cancer (PC), several limitations to advance the field were identified during the workshop. These challenges and hurdles can be classified in three main overlapping categories: 1)Challenges and hurdles specific to PC 2)Challenges and hurdles specific to DR 3)Challenges and hurdles specifically related to DR in PC.

Figure 4

Challenges and hurdles specific to drug repurposing (DR). DR across different diseases, from oncology to rare diseases, presents significant challenges across multiple domains, that can be grouped in four main categories: 1) Scientific and Technological challenges 2) Commercial and Market challenges 3) Clinical and Regulatory challenges 4) Social and Collaborative challenges.