Tadesse B. Tafesse, Mohammed H. Bule, Fazlullah Khan*, Mohammad Abdollahi and Mohsen Amini Pages 250 - 262 ( 13 )
<P>Background: Due to higher failure rates, lengthy time and high cost of the traditional de novo drug discovery and development process, the rate of opportunity to get new, safe and efficacious drugs for the targeted population, including pediatric patients with cancer, becomes sluggish. </P><P> Objectives: This paper discusses the development of novel anticancer drugs focusing on the identification and selection of targeted anticancer drug development for the targeted population. </P><P> Methods: Information presented in this review was obtained from different databases, including PUBMED, SCOPUS, Web of Science, and EMBASE. Various keywords were used as search terms. </P><P> Results: The pharmaceutical companies currently are executing drug repurposing as an alternative means to accelerate the drug development process that reduces the risk of failure, time and cost, which take 3-12 years with almost 25% overall probability of success as compared to de novo drug discovery and development process (10- 17 years) which has less than 10% probability of success. An alternative strategy to the traditional de novo drug discovery and development process, called drug repurposing, is also presented. </P><P> Conclusion: Therefore, to continue with the progress of developing novel anticancer drugs for the targeted population, identification and selection of target to specific disease type is important. Considering the aspects of the age of the patient and the disease stages such as each cancer types are different when we study the disease at a molecular level. Drug repurposing technique becomes an influential alternative strategy to discover and develop novel anticancer drug candidates.</P>
Anticancer drugs, drug discovery, drug development, drug repurposing, targeted population, cancer, plerixafor, thalidomide.
Department of Medicinal Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, Drug Design and Development Research Center and The Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, Drug Design and Development Research Center and The Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Department of Allied Health Sciences, Bashir Institute of Health Sciences, Bhara Kahu Islamabad, Toxicology and Diseases Group (TDG), Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center (PSRC), The Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (TIPS), and Department of Toxicology and Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), Tehran, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, Drug Design and Development Research Center and The Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran