The combination products market has grown dramatically over the last decade. Comprised of two or more components of a drug, biologic, or device combined as a single entity, or co-packaged as separate cross-labeled products, this category of unique medical therapies can offer solutions that some single compounds cannot.

Currently being used, or developed, in a wide range of areas including cardiology, oncology, neurology, diabetes, dermatology, gastroenterology, respiratory, and infectious diseases, their growth is in part due to their potential to improve efficacy, reduce pill burdens, increase compliance, ease administration, target delivery, allow controlled release, and in some cases even provide a more cost-effective option.

With this kind of potential it is therefore not surprising that we find ourselves increasingly using these products in the treatments we are offering our patients. And with this we are finding ourselves becoming increasingly interested in the data and debate surrounding their mechanism of actions, efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness, as well as looking more closely into the pipeline for new innovative combination technologies which could offer our patients significant benefits.

With all this in mind, and the future for combination products looking bright, we need a resource which is easily accessible and can provide us with the data and concise answers we are looking for whilst still keeping us up to date on new products and issues in this ever changing area — and all in the most efficient way possible.

Combination Products in Therapy is an international, fully open access, peer reviewed, rapid publication journal focused on research around the discovery, development, delivery, and use of therapeutic and diagnostic combination products.

Designed with the 21st century in mind, and permitted by our increasingly electronic environment, open access ensures increased global visibility of every article published and helps to disseminate the important information we are after as quickly and easily as possible. To further encourage a wider readership each article has alongside it a bulleted summary slide, which is freely accessible to the reader and accompanies the article online, giving a time-efficient overview of the paper. There is also the option to include supplementary material, such as: videos, to clearly illustrate the main points; slide sets, to condense data more efficiently into bullets and graphics; animations, which are ideal education tools; talking abstracts, for ease of communication; and interactive case studies, to turn simple case reports into a step-by-step learning quiz.

Combination Products in Therapy is therefore, I believe, a welcome addition in educating ourselves and our patients on the latest combination therapies available.