A New Era of Drug Development
Our children don’t have time to wait.
Over the last 20 years only 4 new drugs have been approved that were specifically developed to treat children with cancer. * This means it could be over 300 years before all childhood cancers have an effective treatment.
The time has come for a different approach that can identify treatments quicker and cheaper than before.
The aPODD Approach
We want to find new treatments fast. The current regulatory system and costs involved in developing new drugs make it unworkable as a permanent solution. Which is why at aPODD our research strategy is focused on drug repurposing.
Drug Repurposing
Drug repurposing refers to analysing drugs that are already approved to treat one disease to see if they are safe and effective for treating other diseases. What this means for childhood cancer is that if we can identify drugs that are already safe, and can treat different cancers. By using drugs that are already on the market much of the hard work and expense has already happened.
Making drug repurposing a quicker and cheaper way to get a new treatment to a child with cancer.
Artificial Intelligence
With advances in new technology and in particular Artificial Intelligence, we’re able to do things that were previously unimaginable. For instance, we are able to quickly and efficiently analyse many different data sources at once. Allowing us to gain insights into diseases and drugs that would have previously been unknown.
In terms of finding drugs for childhood cancer, by harnessing the power of data mining and machine learning we can quickly make links between different drugs and cancers, to identify those that can be taken on for further investigation.
Sharing Our Discoveries
We want to share our results, we firmly believe we can’t work in isolation and when we complete a project we will be sharing our findings with clinicians, academics and industry. To give us the greatest chance of getting the new treatment to children with cancer.