Under the theme Drug repurposing for rare diseases. The cure of the 21st century,  B·Debate – an initiative by Biocat and  "la Caixa" Foundation– will be holding, in association with the Barcelona Science Park (PCB) and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu (HSJD), an international expert gathering at CosmoCaixa on 17 and 18 November to help identify new therapeutic strategies for rare diseases, with a special emphasis on drug repurposing already approved for other diseases. 

Jordi Quintana, head of Business Development at PCB and Francesc Palau, director of the Pediatric Research Institute at Hospital San Juan de Dios (IRP-HSJD), are the scientific leaders of this international and interdisciplinary forum, where scientists from the areas of chemistry, computation, biology and genomics, exchange ideas with clinical experts on rare diseases, and with representatives of agencies and entities involved in the development of therapies, on how repurposing of drugs may be optimized for the benefit of patients.

There are around 7000 rare diseases, and therefore the percentage of the global population affected is nearly 6-8%, according to Orphanet. Most of these diseases appear in childhood and are usually severe genetic diseases -often fatal-, causing highly disabling symptoms for those who suffer from the condition.

Only 5% of rare diseases have an available treatment, and their low prevalence is a handicap when it comes to developing new drugs. In addition, tThe drug discovery and development process is long and expensive, and a possible strategy to make it more effective to find new therapies for patients with rare diseases is the repurposing of known drugs for other diseases.

• Program [+info]