Every Cure, a nonprofit backed by the Clinton Global Initiative that works to reuse already-approved drugs to treat rare diseases, will launch later this week, USA Today reported Sept. 18.
The company aims to raise $55 million to recognize generics that can treat rare diseases, test them in clinical trials and repurpose them. Its model is based on the drug approval process — which can take 10 to 15 years plus $1 billion to $2 billion for each new therapy — according to Every Cure's website.
For each disease with an FDA-approved drug, there are three diseases with none, according to the nonprofit. In a pilot program, Every Drug found 106 drugs that could treat 147 of the 9,000 diseases that have no approved treatment, according to USA Today.
The discovery of alternate solutions to generics isn't new, but the concentrated effort to find them is.
"No one is responsible for ensuring that drugs are fully utilized for all diseases they can help," co-founder David Fajgenbaum, MD, told USA Today. "We're taking on that responsibility."
Every Cure's algorithm to identify and rank drugs that can be repurposed will cost $10 million, and the other $45 million the company hopes to raise will go toward clinical trials, according to USA Today.
"We already have the tools we need to find new cures to deadly diseases," former President Bill Clinton said in a statement to USA Today. "We just have [to] connect the dots between the research and the drugs available."