Public Health Stakeholder Engagement in Drug Repurposing: Lessons Learned from RePo-SUDOE

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Background Drug repurposing requires interaction across research, regulatory, clinical and implementation environments. Poor collaboration, limited regulatory expertise and insufficient stakeholder involvement are recognised barriers to translation [1–4]. Dissemination should, however, be distinguished from stakeholder engagement, which involves bidirectional participation. Objectives To characterise stakeholder-related activities undertaken by the Portuguese Society of Public Health (SPSP) within RePo-SUDOE and identify practical lessons for future initiatives. Methods A retrospective descriptive case study used project activity reports, documented outputs and publicly available records. Activities were classified as dissemination when predominantly unidirectional and as engagement when documented bidirectional interaction, consultation or discussion occurred. Stakeholders included regulatory authorities, healthcare organisations/professionals, academic/scientific actors and innovation partners. Results Dissemination included scientific and conference outputs, professional and educational activities, media and digital communication, including stakeholder-oriented videos. Engagement included interactions with healthcare institutions, regulators and innovation partners. Engagement with the Portuguese Oncology Institute of Coimbra generated a proposal for professional dissemination, while interaction with Cluster Saúde de Galicia supported dissemination planning. Regulatory engagement progressed from bilateral dialogue with INFARMED to a transnational roundtable involving INFARMED and AEMPS. Patient and policymaker participation was not systematically documented. Conclusions Three lessons emerged: dissemination and engagement should be separately planned and evaluated; targeted bilateral engagement can support broader multidisciplinary interaction; and early stakeholder mapping should explicitly include patients and policymakers. Future initiatives should prospectively document participation, stakeholder input, resulting actions and follow-up.