Repositioning of drug using pharmacovigilance approach is the primary objective of this study. Rosiglitazone is the target molecule for this pilot scale study. Rosiglitazone is an anti-diabetic drug of thiazolidinedione class. It works as an insulin sensitizer, by binding to the peroxisome proliferator activated receptor (PPAR) gamma in fat cells and making the cells more responsive to insulin. Rosiglitazone has been selected as target molecule because most recently on 16 December 2015, based on its safety, United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) announced to eliminate the risk evaluation mitigation strategy for rosiglitazone and confirmed it as one of the safe and effective treatments for diabetes. For this study, we retrieved a total of 6,884 adverse drug reaction cases of rosiglitazone from drug safety database of USFDA covering the duration from 2010 to 2015. With respect to the study’s objective, we analysed 5,844 cases of rosiglitazone reported with non-serious side effects using its phenotypic parameters (pharmacologic mechanism of action and safety) and proposed two novel therapeutic indications for rosiglitazone use either for Alzheimer’s disease or hypertension. Further studies covering the data for larger duration and same objective may adjuvant our results for the repositioning of rosiglitazone using Pharmacovigilance approach.

Keywords: Drug reposition; rosiglitazone; anti-diabetic; Alzheimer's disease; hypertension