Repurpolis: Exploring drug repurposing through gamification!

Bringing treatments for rare diseases to patients faster is a major challenge, but Radboudumc’s Therapy Accelerator for Rare Diseases is working to change that. By incorporating drug repurposing—finding new uses for existing medications—as one of their approaches, the initiative seeks to overcome regulatory hurdles and accelerate market access. To support researchers in this process, the Therapy Accelerator team recently hosted an interactive session, using the REPURPOLIS game to simulate real-world challenges in drug development.

Last year the Radboudumc Therapy Accelerator for Rare Diseases was initiated to ensure that more effective and safe treatments become faster available for patients with rare diseases. Even though the number of patients per individual disease is relatively small, rare diseases affect over 350 million people worldwide. Developing treatments for these diseases is crucial due to the significant health challenges faced by patients and the lack of effective therapies.

To accelerate this development process, one of the approaches is drug repurposing: identifying a registered drug and evaluating its safety and efficacy with the aim of obtaining market access for a particular disease for which there is a need for treatment. After successful market access the drug can be prescribed to the patients with that disease.

However, the path to market access - overcoming regulatory hurdles, engaging patients and designing a development strategy - can be complex and is unfamiliar to many academic researchers. To tackle this challenge, last January the Therapy Accelerator team hosted a session to deepen the knowledge of Radboudumc colleagues on the drug repurposing process. We played REPURPOLIS, a game developed by Rosan Kreeftmeijer-Vegter from EATRIS. Under Rosan’s enthusiastic and expert guidance, several teams representing academic researchers tried to repurpose an existing drug, strategizing how to bring this drug to market for a new indication. We debated when to involve patients, when to apply for funding, and how to navigate regulatory milestones, while experiencing the highs and lows of the development process.

This interactive gaming approach sparked insightful discussions, critical thinking, and plenty of fun!

Key takeaways:

1. Think about strategic planning and risk management. Aspects related to freedom to operate, orphan drug designation, funding, formulation and regulatory requirements play an important role. 
2. Recognise that drug development/repurposing is complex. It involves many interdependent steps and organisations. 
3. Involve patients at an early stage for more effective and impactful drug development. 
4. Engage early with regulatory authorities. In many cases, they offer free advice to optimise the strategy.

Check-out the Drug Repurposing Teams environment for more upcoming workshops and news related to Drug Repurposing. Drug Repurposing Community | Algemeen | Microsoft Teams

For more information or questions about what the Therapy Accelerator for Rare Diseases
can do for you, please visit the intranet page Therapy Accelerator for Rare Diseases - Radboudumc and feel free to contact the post box: therapyacceleratorrarediseases@radboudumc.nl.

If you are interested in playing the REPURPOLIS game, you can visit the (free) GGG congres on 10 April 2025, where you can subscribe to play the game or contact Rosan Kreeftmeijer-Vegter, Rare Diseases Innovation Officer, directly via EATRIS.