Ai Is Helping Doctors Repurpose Old Drugs For New Cures: 'The Solution Is In Your Neighborhood Pharmacy'

Ai Is Helping Doctors Repurpose Old Drugs For New Cures: 'The Solution Is In Your Neighborhood Pharmacy'

Ai Is Helping Doctors Repurpose Old Drugs For New Cures: 'The Solution Is In Your Neighborhood Pharmacy' When David Fajgenbaum was in medical school, he was diagnosed with an incurable illness called Castleman disease. He was 25 years old when doctors told him “there’s nothing we can do,” and a priest read him his last rites. The disease causes one’s immune system to attack and shut down vital organs for an unknown cause and has no approved treatments or cure. “In a last-ditch effort to save me, my doctors gave me a combination of seven chemotherapies that weren't meant for my disease,” Fajgenbaum explained in a TED Talk earlier this year.  Miraculously, the chemotherapies worked and he returned to medical school. When he relapsed later, he didn’t accept another death sentence.  David Fajgenbaum speaks at TED 2025 in Vancouver, BC. Photo: Jason Redmond / TED “Maybe there’s another drug, made for another disease that could also be repurposed for me,” he said. There was. Now 11 yea…