The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched a new app called CURE ID that allows health care professionals around the world to report novel uses of existing drugs to treat difficult-to-treat infectious diseases.
“The CURE ID application focuses on drugs for infectious diseases lacking adequate treatments, including neglected tropical diseases, emerging infectious threats and infectious caused by antimicrobial-resistant organisms,” said FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner Amy Abernethy.
By reporting clinical outcomes to a central repository, Abernethy said it will be quicker and easier to identify promising off-label uses for already approved drugs that could eventually lead to new approved indications for those products.
“Our hope is that this app will serve as a connector among major treatment centers, academics, private practitioners, government facilities and other health care professionals from around the world and ultimately get treatments to patients faster,” Abernethy said.
The app itself was developed through a collaboration between FDA and the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) and is being released after being piloted in India and South Africa.
The release version of the app includes a newsfeed, improved search functionality, nearly 1,500 case reports and published literature from more than 18,000 clinical trials and is available online at https://cure.ncats.io or downloaded from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
According to FDA, the app will enable health care professionals to browse through submitted case reports, review information from relevant clinical trials and discuss treatments with other professionals.
FDA says it plans to encourage health care professionals across multiple disciplines to use the app.
Source: RAPS.org
