Repurposing Drugs: How One Doctor Saved His Own Life and Hopes to Save Others
Two companies team up to combat rare diseases through drug repurposing, which was heavily informed by one doctor’s experience through unconventionally treating his Castleman disease and (ultimately) saving his own life.
Two companies join forces to unlock the hidden potential in existing drugs to save lives suffering from rare diseases. In 2010, Dr. David Fajgenbaum, co-founder, Every Cure, was a third-year medical student when he became critically ill with Castleman disease (CD). After months of hospitalization and in critical condition, nearly dying several times, he launched an initiative to find treatments to save his life and others.
In this episode, Meg Rivers, managing editor, interviews both Fajgenbaum and Michelle Longmire, CEO and co-founder, Medable—both physicians and entrepreneurs—about:
- How Fajgenbaum found a way to save his own life through drug repurposing
- Longmire and Fajgenbaum’s work together and new partnership to repurpose drugs to treat rare diseases
- How to identify which drugs have the potential to treat other therapeutic areas
- Navigating the regulatory landscape
- The future of drug repurposing
Together in their new partnership, Longmire and Fajgenbaum to treat rare diseases by repurposing drugs that are already on the market and finding other therapeutic areas where these drugs can have an impact.
About the speakers
David Fajgenbaum MD, MBA, MSc, is a physician-scientist at the University of Pennsylvania; co-founder and president of the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network; co-founder of Every Cure; and national bestselling author of Chasing My Cure: A Doctor's Race to Turn Hope Into Action.
Dr. Michelle Longmire is a Stanford-trained physician and entrepreneur driven to improve human health through advances in technology. She founded Medable in 2015 to enable effective therapies to reach patients faster by advancing clinical trials with digital technologies.
About the Pharm Exec Podcast
The editors of Pharmaceutical Executive bring you the latest commercial insights to master the science of success. Podcast episodes examine current trends, key conferences, and critical topics in the bio/pharmaceutical industry.
Listen to this podcast on SoundCloud, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or Apple Podcasts.
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