Drug repurposing is a time efficient way to discover new antimicrobial drugs, reducing approval time and cost. Auranofin is an FDA approved drug for rheumatoid arthritis, but Harbut et al. have found in a screen of bioactive compounds that auranofin is also exhibits promising antibacterial activity. Auranofin showed activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) as well as a laundry list of gram-positive bacteria that includes resistant strains like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Because of its long and safe history as an antirheumatic, auranofin could enter the market as a novel antibiotic very quickly to be another option in treatment of drug resistant bacteria.

Read more here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4394260/