Repurposing Drugs to Target the Diabetes Epidemic

Despite major investment by pharmaceutical companies in conventional drug discovery pipelines, development of new drugs has failed to keep up with the increasing incidence of many diseases, including type 2 diabetes (T2D). Drug repurposing, where existing drugs are applied to a new indication, is gaining momentum as a successful approach to overcome the bottlenecks commonly encountered with conventional approaches. Repurposing takes advantage of available information on the molecular pharmacology of clinical agents to drastically shorten drug development timelines. This review discusses recent advances in the discovery of new antidiabetic agents using repurposing strategies.