The Morningside Center for Innovative and Affordable Medicine
Morningside Center for Innovative and Affordable Medicine
What We Do
In the current biomedical discovery ecosystem, innovation is driven by potential profit. Ideas that could rapidly result in inexpensive, life-saving treatments go unexplored because of lack of financial incentives, leaving untapped opportunities. Our work aims to fill the gap by focusing on the most promising possibilities, rather than the biggest financial returns. We are compiling a list of the most promising drug repurposing opportunities for cancer treatment. We are prioritizing them and designing and funding clinical studies. We advise research, health care, government, and other organizations about the benefits and challenges for using financial orphans to combat diseases.
ReMedy Cancer Database
Aims to make the process of finding repurposed drug data related to cancer easier for patients, physicians and potential investigators.
Learn MoreClinical Impact
We support idea generation, identification of Principal Investigators, designing and writing protocols and funding studies.
Learn MoreAdvocacy
Building bridges between researchers, clinicians, and advocacy groups to advance drug repurposing knowledge and accelerate affordable cancer treatments.
Learn MoreMajor Categories of Financial Orphans
Generic Drugs
FDA-approved drugs or therapies developed to treat one condition could be repurposed to provide life-saving treatment for another disease.
Nutraceuticals
Nutritional products like dietary supplements and functional foods.
Behavioral Therapies
Dietary, exercise and other lifestyle changes that could potentially be as effective as drugs.
Focusing on Patients, not Patents
While the upfront costs are often considered unfundable by drug companies, repurposing drugs and therapies that are already FDA approved for other uses has the potential to get life-saving treatments into the hands of patients quickly and affordably. Safety and toxicology are often well-known based on the FDA approved use of the drug, results can be reused from initial testing, reducing the need for additional safety trials and other early phases of the FDA approval process that take up time and funding.
Dozens of non-cancer drugs initially developed to treat arthritis, diabetes, hypertension and other conditions are known to have potential effects on cancer cells. Our goal is to circumvent the for-profit model of drug development and use a non-profit approach that focuses on the most promising possibilities, rather than the best financial investments.
