On September 23rd, Every Cure Co-Founder Dr. David Fajgenbaum addressed Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s Rare as One Network at the Science in Society Annual Meeting about the learnings and opportunities from his work to found and lead Every Cure, a nonprofit drug development organization focused on advancing repurposed treatments.

The theme of the annual meeting was Advancing Patient-Driven Research In Rare Disease and it brought together the Rare As One Network and other partners across the Science in Society program, including patient leaders, clinicians and researchers. The conference highlighted inspirational wins and emerging cross-cutting approaches and common challenges in patient-driven rare disease research, to identify opportunities for collaboration across organizations and grant programs, and to allow for relationships to develop and strengthen across the program.

In his talk Dr. Fajgenbaum highlighted collaboration. Fajgenbaum’s story of finding his own cure is a testament to the transformative power of persistence, collaboration, and drug repurposing in the field of medicine, highlighting the untapped potential within existing drugs to make a meaningful impact on countless lives. Through his journey, Fajgenbaum emphasizes the need for a systematic and disease-agnostic approach to uncovering new uses for drugs, unlocking opportunities waiting to be discovered.

This is why he founded Every Cure, which aims to revolutionize drug repurposing efforts by integrating data, registry information, and insights from patients and researchers. This initiative holds the promise of not only expanding treatment options for rare diseases but also providing a blueprint for medical innovation that transcends conventional boundaries, ultimately offering hope to the millions of patients worldwide who lack effective therapies for their conditions.