Drug Repurposing Patent Applications July–September 2025

On average, five international patent applications with drug repurposing claims are published weekly. In this study, a selection of 16 prominent cases from the third quarter of 2025 was identified to illustrate the broad scope of drug repurposing discoveries with potential applications in pharmacy. The following are a few highlights. Guanfacine, a centrally acting α 2A -adrenergic receptor agonist originally approved as a first-generation antihypertensive (and since the mid-2010s in its repurposed use as a second-line treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder), ameliorates autonomic dysfunction symptoms in patients carrying a Na v 1.7 channel mutation. Finerenone, a mineralocorticoid antagonist approved to reduce the risk of renal disease progression and heart attacks in subjects with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease, is shown to treat low ovarian function and premature menopause. The old alcohol-aversive agent disulfiram could make subarachnoid hemorrhage more survivable. Entacapone, a useful adjunct in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease symptoms, might also treat gout. Host-based treatment of the herpes simplex virus-infected cornea with lonidamine, a hexokinase-2 inhibitor, could become an alternative to antivirals. Lithium, used in gram doses as a mood stabilizer in bipolar disorder, reduces the peripheral neuropathy that anticancer antibody-drug conjugates often trigger. It is important to note that none of these documents constitute issued patents, and the scope of their disclosures varies (although this does not imply the absence of additional data). The majority of the documents presented here lacked corresponding peer-reviewed publications at the time of their publication. This, in conjunction with their perspective on applied science, renders them invaluable sources of timely scientific and strategic information.