Team Uses E-Health Records to Search for Hidden Drug Benefits

November 25, 2014

(Medical Xpress) – With research and development costs for many drugs reaching well into the billions, pharmaceutical companies want more than ever to determine whether their drugs already at market have any hidden therapeutic benefits that could warrant putting additional indications on the label and increase production. Such repurposing of drugs requires evidence of efficacy, and to find candidate drugs for randomized controlled repurposing trials, investigators can use computer simulation and scans of health care billing data, in addition to in vitro and in vivo testing.