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Repurposing the Repurposing Business Model

 
• By Mark Ratner

Two recent examples of the difficulties of drug repurposing: Bionaut's ability to find new indications was not sufficient to get a foot in pharma's door without novelty to create barriers to entry to deter fast followers. Sention couldn't generate data fast enough on its L-amphetamine in improving cognitive impairment to counter amphetamine's bad image. (Its second program, even armed with pharma-vetted, baggage-less NCEs in-licensed from Merck, emerged too late to save the company.)

When Greg Gardiner, PhD, looked closely at Bionaut Pharmaceuticals Inc. last November, he saw a problem right away. The start-up was using the proprietary assay system around which it was founded to search for new uses for systemically administered generic drugs. But it was focused on finding new systemic indications, and therefore was not creating any effective product differentiation, Gardiner explains. "I laughed thinking about a drug company doing anything with those drugs."

Bionaut still uses its target-independent, pathway-driven screening tool to identify potential new indications for drugs. (See "Bionaut Pharmaceuticals Inc.," START-UP, September 2003 Also see "Bionaut Pharmaceuticals Inc." - Scrip, 1 September, 2003..) But it took several years of unsuccessful pitches to drug companies about its ability to find new uses for old drugs for Bionaut to realize that such a capability was not sufficient to get a foot in pharma's door, much less ink a development deal

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