ArticleDrug discovery today2022
Multiple deadlocks in the development of nonprofit drugs.
Article in Drug discovery today, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Off-label and repurposed use of disulfiram beyond alcohol dependence: A systematic review of clinical and preclinical evidence.iScience · 2026Article
- Development of Low-Dose Disulfiram Rectal Suppository Intended for Application in Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome.Pharmaceutics · 2025Article
- Alternative Cancer Therapeutics: Unpatentable Compounds and Their Potential in Oncology.Pharmaceutics · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The current Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has shown us that the pharmaceutical research community can organize and administer large nonprofit clinical trials (RECOVERY and SOLIDARITY) and achieve the swift development of common, unpatentable drugs for a new indication: in this case an old, inexpensive drug, dexamethasone, for COVID-19. Why is it that such nonprofit efforts are so rare and are not organized as a systemic, routine part of drug development in the public interest? Based on my own experience with repurposing the alcohol-abuse drug disulfiram (Antabuse) for cancer, I identify at least four serious deadlocks to development of nonprofit drugs. All of these obstacles should be addressed to leverage the potential of the COVID-19 pandemic for better future healthcare systems in all countries around the world.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.