From July 2025 to September 2025, ZonMw and FAST are organising a pilot edition of the Drug Repurposing Venture Challenge.

During this Venture Challenge, researchers are guided in setting up a venture plan. This involves turning a scientific breakthrough in the field of drug repurposing into a solid business plan to bring the drug to the market and/or to patients.

The Venture Challenge is an approximately 3-month programme to develop your drug repurposing idea – a breakthrough research result – into a solid business plan. Join and learn how to build a value proposition, identify key risks and assumptions, develop a validation and de-risking strategy, write and present a business plan, and connect with Life Sciences experts, investors and experienced entrepreneurs. The winner of the Drug Repurposing Venture Challenge will receive €20,000.

From idea to patient
Drug repurposing holds the promise of faster and affordable therapy development, including for (rare) diseases for which there are no treatments yet. Drug repurposing now mostly takes place in academia and usually reaches patients in the form of off-label prescribing. Setting up a commercial strategy around a repurposing project can provide a better (on-label) route to the patient.

To fulfil this promise, new indications should preferably be registered for this new indication (coming on-label). However, this still happens too little, often due to lack of experience and knowledge of scientists. In addition, it is necessary that the medicine has a price that gives all stakeholders a sufficient return on investment, but does not necessarily cause excessive profits that drive up healthcare costs and possibly reduce patients’ access to the product.

With this Venture Challenge, ZonMw (Good Use of Medicines) and FAST want to demonstrate in practice that drug repurposing can fulfil the promise of ‘faster, more affordable and available to patients’ in a socially responsible way. This is done by doing business based on the principles of socially responsible licensing.

Good guidance from experts by experience is essential in this respect. The Drug Repurposing Venture Challenge meets this need.

How it works
During a programme lasting about 3 months, teams are guided in setting up a venture plan, turning a scientific breakthrough in drug repurposing into a solid business case that is also attractive to investors. With investment capital, the drug can be registered, making it available to patients on-label. A significant part of the capital will be used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the drug in the repurposed indication. This is essential for patients with progressive disease as taking drugs with unproven efficacy can carry a large ‘opportunity cost’.

The Venture Challenge consists of two 3-day bootcamps with coaching sessions in between and a grand finale. Read more about the schedule here.

For whom

The Drug Repurposing Venture Challenge is aimed at researchers and/or new entrepreneurs in the Life Sciences. The programme focuses specifically on ‘repurposing’ pharmaceutical products. This involves existing drugs being investigated for effectiveness for a promising new indication for which the drug is not (yet) registered.