Off label use of drugs, that is prescribing them to be administered in a manner that is different from the original usage approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is a common practice, especially for medical conditions that have no known therapy. However, the safety and efficacy of this new usage is not known.
Biovista has improved on the concept of identifying new therapeutic uses for existing drugs through an evaluation process that not only identifies the alternative use, but also profiles the possible side effects. The company has designed technology known as the Clinical Outcome Search Space (COSS) that uses the Mechanism of Action approach to find additional uses for current medications. Mechanism of Action is the biochemical process that a drug uses to produce its desired effect.
The Biovista platform works by creating multiple profiles of existing drugs, all known diseases and adverse reactions, and entities like genes or pathways for drug delivery that affect how the medication works. It compares all of these items and then develops a list of new uses for a therapy that is ranked on how safe and effective the drug would be in the treatment of other medical conditions. The long range projection for COSS is to use it to predict clinical outcomes for these new uses in silico, meaning through a computer simulation before they actually occur.
Another significant feature of this technology is that it complements methodologies that are currently being used to develop safer drugs. Also, because it creates drug profiles that include all relevant information to the drug’s biochemical interaction, it can accurately predict adverse side effects before they happen. This lends itself to use by regulatory agencies like the FDA in their assessment of drug safety and efficacy. In fact, the company is currently in collaboration with the agency, as well as with biopharmaceutical companies to help them expand and decrease the risk of their existing products.
Bonavista will be presenting its products and technologies at OneMedForum SF 2012, on January 9 – 12.
-Maria Esposito