Newswise — Cures Within Reach, a leading global nonprofit focused on repurposing research as a fast track to impacting patients’ lives, announced that Scott Weir, Pharm.D., Ph.D., of The University of Kansas Cancer Center, is the recipient of the 2018 Janet Davison Rowley Patient Impact Research Award. Dr. Weir serves as director of the Institute for Advancing Medical Innovation (IAMI) and as associate director for Translational Research at The University of Kansas Cancer Center.

Cures Within Reach selected Dr. Weir for his work in advancing 12 repurposed drugs for cancer patients into clinical trials, as the co-inventor of a repurpsoed antifungal therapy to treat bladder cancer and as an acknowledged thought leader in the repurposing field. Repurposing research clinically tests approved drugs, devices and nutraceuticals to find new treatments for unsolved diseases.

“Dr. Scott Weir has created a culture highly supportive of repurposing at The University of Kansas Cancer Center,” said Clare Thibodeaux, Ph.D., director of Scientific Affairs at Cures Within Reach. “He is dedicated to creating repurposing collaborations among various stakeholders, including industry, academia, government and philanthropy, all to bring treatments to cancer patients in need.” Upon learning of his award, Dr. Weir commented, “Finding new uses for FDA-approved and abandoned drugs is an integral part of our strategy to discover and develop new cancer treatments. We systematically test FDA-approved drugs and abandoned drugs for activity against newly discovered cancer pathways to create opportunities to rapidly advance new cancer treatments to our patients, to identify opportunities to enhance tumor response and overcome resistance to standard-of care agents, and to assist in validating cancer drug targets in support of our efforts to discover new anticancer agents.”

About the Janet Davison Rowley Patient Impact Research Award

The Janet Davison Rowley Patient Impact Research Award recognizes researchers and clinicians who have successfully repurposed a drug, device or nutraceutical for human clinical use, published their repurposed treatment results in the clinical or scientific literature and provided patients with increased quality of life through the repurposed treatment developed. The award is named in recognition of the impact that Dr. Janet Davison Rowley had on patients through her clinical care and medical research, and because her pioneering discoveries showing genetic alterations create diseases are the foundation of many repurposing opportunities.

About Cures Within Reach

Cures Within Reach (CWR) is a U.S.-based global philanthropic leader that improves patient quality and length of life by leveraging the speed, safety and cost-effectiveness of medical repurposing research, driving more treatments to more patients more quickly. CWR catalyzes research to facilitate and validate repurposing opportunities that create clinical impact, and enables and facilitates conversation and action among stakeholders that help transform healthcare through repurposing opportunities. Through repurposing, CWR drives both market impact and health savings to patients and patient groups, from academia / researchers, with payers and the healthcare industry and with support from the government, philanthropy and others. CWR's repurposing research projects have generated over a dozen "new" treatments making patient impact through off-label use in clinical practice or through a commercialization track.