New uses for old drugs: Novel therapeutic options

Introducing a new drug to the market now costs an average of US$ 897 million and is a time consuming process. Discovering new uses for the old drugs offers the advantage of providing time tested drugs for the benefit of the patients. Serendipity plays an important role in this. This therapeutic option may provide cost effective treatment, especially for the developing countries with limited resources. This article focuses on the new potential uses of some common drugs. However, these options need to be pursued by more researches so that the potential benefits could be passed on to the patients.