Safety Pharmacology

Guest Editor: Michael Pugsley
Publication Date: August 2008

Safety Pharmacology has emerged as a unique specialism during the last decade. Driven by the imperatives of the Pharmaceutical Industry to formalise a system for anticipating adverse effects of new drugs, it incorporates the principles of bioassay, the techniques of toxicology and all the tools of biological research in a quasi-forensic framework.

If, in drug discovery, the question about a target and a drug that affects it is "will it work?", the question in Safety Pharmacology is simply "is it safe?". While most pharmacologists appreciate the complexity of the issues and approaches necessary to find out the answer to the first question, they may be less sure about the antecedents of the latter.

The Safety Pharmacology themed issue, guest edited by Michael Pugsley, is intended to highlight the continuing evolution of the general and specific aspects of this emerging discipline for the benefit of the general pharmacologists among us who may know little about it. At the same time it is intended to extend the focus of the discipline into a wider context for the benefit of the specialists who are part of it.

A selection of Review and Research Articles that will be featured in the themed issue are listed below. Sign up for BJP's e-alerts to be informed when the issue goes live.