‍Have you ever asked yourself if there’s a faster way to find treatments for diseases? What if the cures we need are already here, just waiting to be used for something else? 

We all want better treatments. But behind every new drug you see on the market is a long, complicated, and incredibly expensive journey. On average, it takes more than 12 years to bring a single drug from the lab to your pharmacy shelf. That’s not just because science is hard, it’s also because the system around it is slow, risk-averse, and designed to favor big wins over fast solutions.

There are multiple steps along the way: lab research, preclinical testing, multiple phases of clinical trials, regulatory approval, manufacturing, marketing,  the list goes on. And at every step, there are delays, costs, and often, failures. So, in the end, only the treatments that offer the biggest financial return are the ones that get pushed forward. This means rare diseases, complex conditions, and low-margin treatments often get left behind, not because they aren’t worth solving, but because they don’t fit Big Pharma’s business model.

But what if there was a faster, more affordable way to get real treatments to people who need them? Imagine a drug that was created to treat one illness but could hold the secret to curing something completely different. It’s happening more than you think. But why don’t we hear about these breakthroughs more often?

The Shortcut They Rarely Mention: Drug Repurposing

Here’s the secret Big Pharma doesn’t talk about often: sometimes, you don’t need to invent a brand-new drug to treat a disease. You can repurpose an existing one.

Drug repurposing means taking a medicine that was originally made for one condition and using it to treat another. It sounds almost too simple but it works. And in many cases, it’s the fastest and safest way to get treatments to patients.

Why? Because these drugs have already passed key safety tests. Researchers already know how they behave in the body, what the side effects are, and how to manufacture them. That skips years of early-stage research and reduces a lot of the risk.

And in many cases, it works.

Repurposed drugs skip some of the most expensive and time-consuming steps in drug development. Since their safety profiles are already known, researchers can move faster and go straight into studies that focus on how well the drug works for the new condition, not whether it’s safe to use at all.

Some of the most successful medicines on the market started out this way.

• Aspirin was originally used for pain relief, but later found to help prevent heart attacks.
  
  
• Minoxidil, a blood pressure medication, became the go-to treatment for hair loss.
  
  
• Thalidomide, once a tragedy, is now used to treat multiple myeloma and other conditions.
  
  

These are proof that repurposing works and it could be one of the most efficient paths to treatments for rare and neglected diseases.

And yet, drug repurposing still gets far less attention and funding than brand-new drug development.

Why is that?

Let’s get into it.

What’s Hiding in Plain Sight?

Now, we all know Big Pharma, they're not exactly known for being the most altruistic bunch. Their priority isn’t always finding a cure, it’s keeping you on the hook for treatments, one pill at a time. Developing brand-new drugs from scratch costs billions, and even when they do find something promising, the process can take decades. Why? Because there’s more profit in treatments that keep you coming back, rather than a one-time cure that closes their cash registers.

But here’s the thing, they could cut those timelines in half. There are already countless drugs sitting on the shelves that could treat other diseases if repurposed. The problem is, they’d rather spend billions on developing the next blockbuster drug than redirect those resources to something that doesn’t promise them massive returns. It's not in their interest to tell you that an arthritis drug could also work wonders for cancer. No, they want to lock you into a new product with a shiny new patent, and they’ll do everything in their power to keep those profit margins fat.

The truth is, they’re sitting on a goldmine of underutilized treatments, but if the bottom line doesn’t look good, they’ll leave them to collect dust. For patients, it’s like waiting for a miracle that’s already been discovered, just not marketed to you—because it doesn’t pay.

Why Big Pharma Doesn’t Lead the Way

If drug repurposing is faster, cheaper, and sometimes even more effective, why doesn’t Big Pharma focus on it?

The short answer: it doesn’t make enough money.

Pharmaceutical companies make the biggest profits when they bring brand-new, patented drugs to market. A new drug means exclusive rights, no competition, and the ability to charge high prices for years. Repurposed drugs, on the other hand, are often off-patent, meaning anyone can make them and that means lower profit margins.

Even when a company discovers a new use for an old drug, the financial return often isn’t worth the cost of running large clinical trials and navigating regulatory hurdles. From a business perspective, it’s safer to invest in drugs that promise billion-dollar returns than to bet on low-cost solutions for rare or overlooked conditions.

In other words, the system isn’t designed to reward what’s best for patients, it rewards what’s most profitable.

That’s why many promising repurposing opportunities get ignored or shelved. Not because they don’t work, but because they don’t fit the business model.

But here’s the good news: drug repurposing doesn’t need to rely on Big Pharma anymore.

In the next section, we’ll look at how researchers, patients, and communities are picking up where traditional systems fall short and changing the game from the ground up.

How Communities Are Changing the Game

If Big Pharma won’t prioritize drug repurposing, then who will?

More and more, it’s communities, patients, scientists, and independent researchers, stepping up and pushing things forward.

Instead of waiting years for industry support, these groups are pooling resources, sharing knowledge, and building new pathways for research without gatekeepers. And at the center of this shift is a growing movement: decentralized science (DeSci).

DeSci platforms are changing how science gets done. They’re removing the usual barriers to funding, allowing contributors to co-design studies, and ensuring the people most affected by diseases have a say in the research process. It’s not just a new funding model, it’s a new way of thinking about who gets to lead scientific progress.

At Curetopia, this is exactly what we’re focused on bringing together scientists, patients, and supporters to work on repurposing treatments for rare conditions. We had our first success identifying repurposing candidates for AARS2 Deficiency, a rare and often fatal mitochondrial disease. But our work doesn’t stop there. AARS2 is just the beginning, we’re building a broader system to take on more neglected conditions using this same approach.

Curetopia is designed as a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization), which means that decisions about what gets researched and funded happen on-chain, through collective governance by the very people who care about these diseases most, patients and their allies.

When science is no longer limited by profit incentives or institutional bottlenecks, it can start serving the people who’ve been left out for too long.

Why This Communal Approach Matters in Drug Repurposing

The traditional way of developing drugs leaves people waiting, often for years.The beauty of drug repurposing is that it doesn’t take decades to see results, it could be as quick as a few years, maybe even less. This could be life-saving for patients who don’t have time to waste.

As more communities take research into their own hands, people affected by rare diseases are no longer just waiting for answers, they’re helping create them. Scientists are collaborating directly with patients and treatments that might have once been ignored are finally getting a chance. 

The next time you hear about a new “wonder drug” in development, remember that there could already be a solution sitting on the shelf, just waiting for someone to use it in a new way.

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