Theralase Technologies Inc. announce that in preclinical research, it's lead drug formulation, Rutherrin was able to repurpose non-cancer drugs for cancer therapy. Drug repurposing is the process of finding new uses for existing clinically approved drugs. Repurposing is a drug development strategy that received heightened attention after the Food and Drug Administration (?FDA?) granted emergency use authorization of several repurposed drugs to treat the Covid-19 virus.

Drug repurposing, defined as researching new indications for already approved drugs or advancing previously studied, but unapproved drugs, is a core approach in drug development. Some reports state that about 30 to 40% of new drugs and biologics approved by the FDA are repurposed or repositioned products, while only 10% of new drug applications achieve approval. Repurposing drugs has several advantages, such as: Cutting research and development costs.

Reducing the drug development timeline. Reusing drugs that have already demonstrated safety in humans. Overcoming some of the challenges and knowledge gaps in testing drugs for rare diseases There is a growing attraction in analyzing off-patent drugs that have established safety, pharmacokinetics (how the human body interacts with a drug) and efficacy and repurposing them for other indications; specifically, cancer, to significantly reduce the cost and time to bring them to market.

Theralase has demonstrated in preclinical research that Rutherrin is able to accomplish this task with various drugs, by significantly enhancing their efficacy in the destruction of cancer cells and repurposing their use in the treatment of multiple cancer indications. Withaferin A, is a steroid primarily used as an anti-inflammatory drug to combat cancer-associated inflammation is being investigated to improve immune checkpoint blockers for cancer treatments. Amiodarone, an anti-arrhythmic medication used to treat and prevent specific types of cardiac dysrhythmias is being investigated as a cancer treatment.

Metformin, which is the most widely prescribed medicine for type 2 diabetes has been investigated for its potential as an anti-cancer treatment. Cells were treated with 3 µM Rutherrin, before addition of each of the drugs mentioned above, to analyze cell survival. Rutherrin significantly increased the cancer cell kill for all tested non-cancer drugs, without light and/or radiation activation, suggesting that Rutherrin can be combined with these drugs to repurpose them in the destruction of cancer.