Patient groups like Beacon provide critical information and resources to help the rare disease community get closer to (repurposed) treatments for devastating illnesses.
As someone who is literally alive today thanks to a repurposed drug that I discovered and tested on myself, I am a huge proponent of drug repurposing and committed to utilizing all approved drugs for every disease that they can be effective in — regardless of how rare or common. Beacon is fully committed to this vision of repurposing drugs for rare diseases.
But it isn’t easy. As I found through my journey Chasing My Cure and searching for repurposed drugs for other patients through the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network, drug repurposing is challenging and has many roadblocks in the way.
The CDCN is currently mapping out the various paths to drug repurposing through the ROADMAP project, and Beacon helps to connect patient organizations to share experiences and resources to get around these roadblocks. I’ve learned that none of us can do this alone. Thanks to organizations like Beacon, we don’t have to.
Dr David Fajgenbaum
Co-Founder, Castleman Disease Collaborative Network (CDCN)