WP7 – Clinical development & implementation

Deliverable D7.1 summarises the capacities and expertise available to support clinical development for drug repurposing within the REMEDi4ALL consortium, and closely related ecosystem, and the challenges and barriers of the clinical development process pertinent to drug repurposing.

It was important to identify the key challenges being faced by the four pilot projects and the capacities that exist within the REMEDi4ALL consortium to support repurposing projects to streamline the future work towards adding, expanding, and upgrading the consortium resources and expertise to support the repurposing community.

WP7 performed this gap analysis using a mixed method approach: in-depth interviews with demonstrator projects, a survey, a literature search, and collaboration with other work packages within the consortium to identify barriers in specific domains (funding, policy etc) to evaluate the maturity and readiness of the consortium to provide clinical development services to drug repurposing projects. Based on past experiences, long-standing portfolio to support clinical development and clinical operational services by ECRIN, and available expertise within the consortium, a blueprint to cover clinical aspects of the Repurposing Development Plan is also provided which can be adaptable to possible drug repurposing projects.

The complete range of clinical stage services available within the REMEDi4ALL consortium is listed in the accompanying document ‘Clinical Stage Services Catalogue’. The WP7 team aims to help the drug repurposing projects through their clinical stage journey and is enthusiastic to get in touch with the teams developing repurposed medicines to support them in their clinical operational tasks.

• View the Deliverable here.

WP3 – Training & Capacity Building

To understand what role REMEDi4ALL’s training will serve, it was crucial that there was an in-depth assessment of pre-existing training both specifically covering drug repurposing and covering different aspects of the drug repurposing/translational research pathway. Work Package 3 (WP3) believes that a strong training platform will not reinvent the wheel but use a collaborative approach and robust signposting to ensure REMEDi4ALL’s offering complements and enhances the existing training ecosystem. A number of methods were applied to build as full a picture of the current training landscape as possible. This included guided, targeted searching, one-to-one interviews, and the formation of a new, user-friendly and focused database of training. While many resources exist that offer signposting, information and guidance on drug repurposing, there is a significant gap in the formation of a centralized education and training platform that brings all stages of the process and all stakeholders together to offer a fully accessible and collaborative knowledge base. REMEDi4ALL’s training and education work package should aim to fill this gap.

• View the Deliverable here.