In this month's 'From the Analyst's Couch', Downton and Clark assess the impact that the imminent expiration of patents, and the development of new 'superstatins', will have on the market for these cholesterol-lowering drugs. With annual mortality due to sepsis — a clinical manifestation of the body's response to infection — near to that of heart attacks, the failure of potential therapeutics to translate from animal models to human patients is of great concern. Marshall considers the reasons behind the disappointing outcomes of many clinical trials, and points to approaches that could lead to future success. A recent success is described in this issue's 'Fresh from the Pipeline', which focuses on enfuvirtide — the first novel anti-HIV drug for more than seven years. HIV replication is one of many pathological processes that can be targeted by polymer-based pharmaceuticals, which are reviewed by Duncan. Novel therapeutics, this time based on zinc-finger protein transcription factors (ZFP TFs), are highlighted in the review by Pabo and colleagues, which also describes the use of ZFP TFs in target validation. In their 'Guide to Drug Discovery' article, Alanine and colleagues suggest that the plethora of potential drug targets that have emerged from the human genome sequence necessitate a more integrated approach to hit and lead generation. The filing of patents for potentially useful gene and protein sequences on a purely speculative basis has become common practice, and the ramifications of this in Europe are addressed by Crease and Schlich. Finally, since the identification of the gene for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the focus of treatment has shifted towards gene-based therapies, but, as Khurana and Davies describe, pharmacological strategies could still have an important role to play.