Many authorised drugs have been investigated in clinical studies to be repurposed for treating osteoarthritis, with short-term studies primarily examining symptom-modifying effects, and most long-term studies also assessing structure-modifying effects. However, the broad and heterogeneous nature of clinical research in this field complicates the accurate evaluation of disease-modifying osteoarthritis drug candidates. This review, therefore, highlights the need for a more strategic research landscape on drug repurposing for osteoarthritis.
Heijman et al. (2026) studied this question.