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UCL contributes to global dialogue at International Drug Repurposing Conference 2026
15 May 2026
UCL participated in a global drug repurposing conference, sharing insights on collaboration, AI-driven discovery, and the importance of regulatory pathways to accelerate patient impact.
Colleagues from the UCL Translational Research Office (TRO) played an active role at the International Drug Repurposing Conference (#IDR26) in Brussels last week, contributing to global discussions on advancing patient impact through innovative approaches to drug development.
The annual conference brings together the international drug repurposing community to explore the next phase of translating research into real-world patient benefit. This year’s programme covered key themes including rare diseases, AI-driven drug discovery, policy and funding frameworks, and community-led success stories.
Dr Carmel Reilly, Head of the Business and Innovation Group at the TRO, joined the conference as a panel speaker in the session “Repurposing Community (II): Improving skills and creating collaborations”, where she shared insights on strengthening collaboration and building capability across the drug repurposing ecosystem.
The TRO team also highlighted several key takeaways from the conference:
- Drug repurposing relies on a highly collaborative ecosystem spanning academia, industry, investors, regulators, non-profits, and patient groups
- Emerging technologies, particularly AI, are an incredibly useful tool to enable researchers to identify new uses for existing, approved drugs, a strategy that significantly reduces development time and costs compared to traditional, de novo drug discovery
- Early understanding of regulatory pathways is critical to streamline development, approval, and delivery of real-world patient impact
Updated EU legislation Article 48 introduces a 4-year data exclusivity period to incentivise drug repurposing, specifically addressing unmet medical needs, and allowing academic groups, not-for-profit organisations and companies to apply.
Participation in international forums such as #IDR26 enables UCL to strengthen relationships with global stakeholders and remain at the forefront of developments in translational research and drug repurposing.
The TRO team continues to support UCL researchers in developing impactful partnerships and advancing innovations towards clinical application.
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