Drug repurposing market seen reaching $51.8B by 2032

By AI, Created 11:09 AM UTC, May 20, 2026, /AGP/ – A Maximize Market Research report says the global drug repurposing market will grow from $37.06 billion in 2025 to $51.80 billion by 2032, helped by AI platforms, rare disease demand and lower development costs. The report points to oncology, CNS therapies and North America as key growth engines.

Why it matters: - Drug repurposing can cut development costs by up to 60% and shorten timelines from about 12 years to under 5. - The approach lowers risk by reusing molecules with known safety profiles and established ADMET data. - The market is growing as drugmakers look for faster, cheaper paths to approved therapies in oncology, rare diseases and other hard-to-treat conditions.

What happened: - Maximize Market Research valued the global drug repurposing market at $37.06 billion in 2025. - The report projects the market will reach $51.80 billion by 2032, implying a 4.9% CAGR. - The company framed drug repurposing as a data-driven strategy powered by AI, bioinformatics and knowledge graphs. - The report says the market also goes by the drug repositioning market. - A sample copy of the report is available here. - The full report is available here.

The details: - Traditional drug development costs an average of $2.6 billion per approved molecule, according to the report. - Clinical trials fail about 90% of the time. - Repurposed drugs can move directly into Phase II in some cases because Phase I safety work is already established. - The report highlights several examples of successful repurposing, including sildenafil, thalidomide, baricitinib and metformin. - Baricitinib received Emergency Use Authorization for severe COVID-19 in 2022 after AI-driven repurposing work identified it as a cytokine storm inhibitor. - Metformin entered Phase III trials in 2024 at the National Institute on Aging for aging and cancer prevention. - The oncology repurposing segment is forecast to reach $20.3 billion by 2030. - Rare disease drug discovery is described as the fastest-growing application. - CNS disease therapeutics is an emerging growth area, including pipelines for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. - AI and machine learning lead the technology segment, followed by bioinformatics, network pharmacology and experimental approaches. - Oral, injectable and topical are the main route-of-administration segments. - Pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies, academic and research institutes, and CROs are the main end users.

Between the lines: - The report suggests repurposing is shifting from occasional discovery to a deliberate portfolio strategy. - Intellectual property limits remain a headwind because many repurposed molecules are already in the public domain. - Orphan drug designation and data exclusivity can help offset weaker exclusivity windows. - North America leads the market on NIH funding, FDA pathways and a dense AI drug discovery ecosystem. - Asia-Pacific is the fastest-growing region, helped by India’s generic manufacturing base, China’s bioinformatics investment and government-backed precision medicine programs in Japan and South Korea. - The report also points to a larger competitive divide between incumbent pharma companies and AI-native players such as BenevolentAI, Exscientia, Insilico Medicine and Recursion Pharmaceuticals. - Exscientia and Sanofi signed a $5.2 billion collaboration in 2024 focused on AI-driven drug discovery and repositioning.

What’s next: - Oncology and CNS disease therapeutics are expected to remain the main battlegrounds through 2030. - Rare disease drug discovery is likely to stay attractive for mid-cap drugmakers because orphan incentives improve economics. - The report expects more pipelines to combine multimodal AI with real-world patient data. - Public-sector programs such as NIH NCATS will likely keep supporting compound repositioning through open-science partnerships.

The bottom line: - Drug repurposing is moving from a niche tactic to a mainstream development model, with AI, regulatory support and lower risk driving the business case.