The process of repurposing drugs is an alternative to the conventional drug
discovery process. It is a cost-effective and time-efficient process with high returns and
low risk that utilizes mechanistic information of the existing drugs to investigate their
novel applications against other disease conditions. The most significant benefit of
drug repositioning is that it brings new life against novel/ orphan/ resistant diseases and
pandemic outbreaks like COVID-19. As a result, widespread use of the drug
repurposing strategy will not only aid in the more efficient fight against pandemics but
will also combat life-threatening diseases. Therefore, repurposing drugs can provide a
quick response to these unpredictable situations. In this chapter, we have tried to focus
on various drug-repurposing strategies along with therapeutics for repurposing drugs
against life-threatening diseases wherein little or no treatment is readily available.
Keywords: Drug-repurposing, Life-threatening diseases, New drug development, Phenotype screening.
