How to Conduct a Freedom-to-Operate Analysis for a Drug Repurposing Project

This document provides the general methodology and specific resource access points for performing a Freedom-to-Operate (FtO) analysis tailored to the needs of a drug repurposing project. It has been deliberately written to be performed with minimal technical resources: Only web access is required, and no use is made of artificial intelligence tools. It can be performed by the inventors, up to the point where potentially critical findings (if any) are discussed with a patent attorney. When done properly, this method actually improves the relevance of the analysis, since no patent specialist can be expected to be fully familiar with all the scientific aspects of a repurposing project. While patent searches are the dominant motive, there is also discussion of how to recruit suitable suppliers, an issue that is particularly important when the compound is reformulated (as will be the case in most cases).