What is happening in drug repurposing at Amsterdam UMC? And how can we ensure that new uses for existing medicines reach patients in a sustainable way? These questions were at the heart of the RARE-NL event Drug Repurposing with a Purpose on 22 September. Researchers, healthcare stakeholders and entrepreneurs shared work already under way at Amsterdam UMC and discussed what it takes to move promising projects forward.

Saco de Visser (FAST) opened with a short lecture that placed the challenges of drug repurposing in a broader context. Arjen Brussaard then announced a concrete step forward: Amsterdam Academic Ventures is launching the Amsterdam UMC Drug Repurposing Fund. The fund will have €4 million to support the development of new uses for existing medicines, providing funding for promising projects that might otherwise struggle to get off the ground.

The researchers then took the floor. In a series of pitches, they presented projects under way at Amsterdam UMC, including work on Alzheimer’s disease, Prader-Willi syndrome and the treatment of vanishing white matter disease with guanabenz. The examples showed the breadth of drug repurposing. They also made clear that each project calls for its own decisions about research, development and the route to patients.

Those decisions were central to the panel discussion with Sanne Stembert (IXA), Viktoriia Starokozhko (CBG), Lonneke Timmers (Zorginstituut Nederland) and Vincent van der Wel (Orfenix), moderated by Sibren van den Berg and Nina Stolwijk. Drawing on their different areas of expertise, the panellists discussed what it would take to advance the projects presented: what studies are needed, who should be involved, and how can sustainable patient access be considered from the outset?

Finally, Dunja Huijbers and Heleen van der Meer highlighted the support available through ZonMw and REMEDi4ALL, including opportunities to find expertise and partners. The afternoon ended with practical starting points for researchers looking to take their projects further.

Thank you to all the speakers, panellists and participants for sharing their work and insights. The event showed how research, funding and expertise can reinforce one another. RARE-NL will continue to bring these connections together and help make lessons from individual projects useful more widely