# A public fund that pays for phase 3 trials of cheap, off-patent drugs against cancer

Source: https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-reg-global-repurposing-fund/  
OnCo record `idea-reg-global-repurposing-fund` (Idea). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Old drugs like aspirin, statins and beta-blockers show hints of fighting cancer, but no company will pay to prove it. A dedicated public fund should.

## Summary

The ReDO project (Anticancer Fund) catalogues hundreds of off-patent drugs with anticancer signals; almost none have reached a definitive trial. Public funders have run a few (Add-Aspirin, ALASCCA, MA.32 metformin), and the UK, Belgium and the EU have discussed repurposing frameworks. The proposal is a dedicated international fund (order of $200-300 million a year, from NIHR, NCI, EU and philanthropy) with an independent prioritisation panel, a standing trial network, and a requirement that funded trials be designed to support regulatory label updates and guideline inclusion.

## Fields

- Kind: Idea
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Hypothesis: The fund completes at least ten definitive repurposing trials in its first decade, of which at least two produce practice-changing survival benefits at a cost per life-year gained under $5,000.
- Rationale: Repurposed generics have no sponsor because the returns cannot be captured; the expected value to health systems is enormous even at a low hit rate because the drugs cost almost nothing to deliver once proven.
- Proposed test: Capitalise the fund, select the first five trials through open prioritisation, and report time to enrolment, cost per trial and results against a pre-registered portfolio plan.
- Maturity: early-clinical
- Actor: philanthropy

## Sources

- Anticancer Fund ReDO project (page moved; nearest live section): https://www.anticancerfund.org/en/

## Connected records

- bottlenecks: [Funding follows fashion, not burden](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-funding-allocation/), [No incentive to repurpose cheap drugs](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-generic-repurposing/)

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