Core insights – Cross-sectional systems integration for drug repurposing

At the project’s inception, we established a baseline TRL inventory to map the critical technologies available within the consortium. We have since taken this exercise a step further by projecting the specific TRL requirements needed to meet the platform’s rigorous standards. By extrapolating these interactions, we ensure that every technical component is seamlessly aligned with the platform’s final architecture.

A major milestone has been the provisional integration of the hugely expanded version of the RepoScope knowledge base into the platform’s alpha version, with full integration slated for the beta release.

RepoScope is a database of patents, peer-reviewed papers, conference abstracts, and other scientific information related to drug repurposing. Within the REPO4EU drug repurposing framework, RepoScope serves as a prior art filter for prioritising candidate compounds, enabling users to make educated go/no-go project decisions in a pre-project stage based on what the scientific community has already published, and facilitating freedom-to-operate analyses and strategic patenting considerations.

By early 2026, we solved a significant bottleneck: the overwhelming task of manually screening 300–500 life science patent applications per week. This is now handled by RepoDetect, an internal LLM-based screening tool that automates the process with such precision that only a few borderline cases require human review. This advancement ensures the long-term sustainability of RepoScope. Looking ahead, we are training RepoDetect to identify peer-review companion papers, i.e., journal articles already published by the inventors that elaborate on the subject of identified drug repurposing patent applications.

Additionally, meaningful work has been conducted towards building a Unified Prioritization Matrix. One may think of this as a multidimensional decision tree including :

• Multiple “Roots” (Entry Points) defined by the user’s specific repurposing strategy.
• A set of “Common Pathways” for development.
• “Branches” (Exit Points) tailored to the chosen objectives of the drug repurposing project.

To illustrate this in practice, we are developing fictional drug repurposing scenarios that demonstrate how the matrix steers a project from a scientific concept to a viable medical solution.

Our guiding vision is to architect a scalable, responsive infrastructure that supports EU-wide health readiness and bridges the gap between laboratory discovery and patient care.

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues its rapid evolution, our role is to keep the REPO4EU Platform, the central hub of our drug repurposing infrastructure, at the absolute cutting edge of integrated technology. Because we aren’t just building a static tool; we are cultivating a living ecosystem that adapts to the shifting pulse of modern medicine and technology. Our next milestone is to develop advanced AI support on establishing links to the peer-reviewed paper sphere of drug repurposing.

However, this forward-looking mission is not without its hurdles. While AI has automated much of our screening, the scientifically meaningful abstraction of identified repurposing patent documents and the precise tagging of named entities remains a challenge. Therefore, building a comprehensive knowledge graph of the repurposing patentome requires moving beyond the RepoDetect approach.

As the project’s connective tissue, systems integration demands continuous monitoring of both internal progress and global developments across relevant fields. There is no shortcut for this level of vigilance. It is a fundamental requirement that is as demanding as it is rewarding. Through this ongoing integration effort, we ensure the transformation of fragmented research into a unified, future-proofed engine for drug repurposing.

The systems integration pillar is led by HMPC, who is dedicated to bridging the gap between high-level research and clinical readiness. Their work is pivotal in assessing TRLs, developing robust prioritization matrices, and establishing gold-standard CMC documentation guidelines. Beyond technical frameworks, this ensures the project’s resilience by integrating the REPO4EU platform into broader EU health emergency preparedness plans.

With over 25 years of experience spanning both academic research and the corporate pharmaceutical industry, HMPC provides a sophisticated, big-picture perspective. Working closely with the Egnosis and ScienceOpen teams, its leadership ensures an overarching provision of tools and services that harmonizes contributions from our multidisciplinary team of experts, all converging toward a single goal: accelerating drug repurposing.