Dear Reader,

Welcome to the final issue of Drugs in R&D for 2020.

This year has presented many challenges and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all who have contributed to ensuring the journal has thrived despite the extraordinary circumstances that the science community, and the world in general, has faced.

I would like to start by thanking the authors of the articles published in Drugs in R&D over the course of 2020. The enthusiasm of all authors for their chosen fields and their willingness to contribute content to the journal are crucial for its continued success.

The quality of published articles is also testament to the diligence of the peer reviewers, whose willingness to share their expertise ensures that the journal’s content is held to the highest standard. I would like to acknowledge the following individuals who acted as reviewers for Drugs in R&D in the last 12 months:

Gaetano Alfano, Italy

Luis Alou, Spain

Cristiano Amarelli, Italy

Bruno Annibale, Italy

Yoshimasa Aso, Japan

Teresa Bellón, Spain

Anthony Berdis, USA

Akshaya S. Bhagavathula, United Arab Emirates

Nick Bird, UK

Faith Cabbar, Turkey

Frédéric Carrière, Tunisia

Giannantonioi Cassisi, Italy

Chiranjib Chakraborty, India

Fei Wen Cheong, Malaysia

Kuo-Chen Chou, USA

Danny Cohn, the Netherlands

Jan de Jong, USA

Judith J. de Jong, The Netherlands

Luigi De Petris, Sweden

Mathias Due Buron, Denmark

Christine M. Durand, USA

Thomas R. Easterling, USA

Michael Fettiplace, USA

Daniel Fife, USA

Aron Fisher, USA

Bruno Frediani, Italy

William Freeman, USA

Francois Gaillard, France

Fernando Garcia-Souto, Spain

Valentina Garelli, Italy

Paul P.L. Giangrande, UK

Sebastiaan Goulooze, The Netherlands

Tingjie Guo, The Netherlands

Georg Hempel, Germany

Hans Hendriks, The Netherlands

Olaf Hoffmann, Germany

Jaroslav Hrenak, Slovakia

Richard Hughes, UK

Ken Ishii, Japan

Deepak Jakhar, India

Naoko Kanda, Japan

Vangelis Karalis, Greece

Merve Kasap, USA

Danielle Keulards, The Netherlands

Ganessan Kichenadasse, Australia

Stephan Kraehenbuehl, Switzerland

Gregory Krauss, USA

Jerrold H. Levy, USA

Hanbin Li, USA

Matthias Löhr, Sweden

Osama Loubani, Canada

Johnny N. Mahlangu, South Africa

Edoardo Marrani, Italy

Franz H. Messerli, Switzerland

Theresia Metoh, Cameroon

Pavel Mozgunov, UK

Francisco Navarro-Triviño, Spain

David D.P. Nicolau, USA

Ross Norris, Australia

Roisin E. O'Cearbhaill, USA

Anna Ockerman, Belgium

Win Min Oo, Australia

Manjunath P. Pai, USA

Antoine Petitcollin, France

Sara-Joan Pinto-Sietsma, The Netherlands

Akshanth R. Polepally, USA

Rosa L. Potenza, Italy

Motiur Rahman, USA

Robert Rubin, USA

Jesus Ruiz Ruiz Ramos, Spain

Izabela Rusiecka, Poland

Eleftherios P. Samartzis, Switzerland

Cheryl Sargel, USA

Andrea Savarino, Italy

Gianantonio Saviola, Italy

Jean-Michel Scherrmann, France

Edward Schmidt, USA

Arun Singh, USA

Romain Siriez, Belgium

Hemant K. Srivastava, India

Norbert Stefan, Germany

Raman Sureshkumar, India

Navin Suthahar, The Netherlands

Derek Taylor, USA

Hiroki Teragawa, Japan

Alison H. Thomson, UK

Dick Tibboel, The Netherlands

Andreas Tiede, Germany

Laszlo Tothfalusi, Hungary

Timir Tripathi, India

Georgios Tsivgoulis, Greece

Geoffrey T. Tucker, UK

Susanne Urach, Austria

Edward T. Van Matre, USA

Maurice van Steensel, The Netherlands

Marcel Van't Veer, the Netherlands

Francisco Vílchez-Oya, Spain

Thomas Weiser, Germany

Kyle J. Wilby, New Zealand

Uwe Wollina, Germany

Hongmei Xu, USA

Satoshi Yamaguchi, Japan

Victoria C. Ziesenitz, Germany

I am also very grateful to the members of the journal’s Honorary Editorial Board, who have acted as peer reviewers and authors, and have provided guidance on journal content, policy and processes:

G. An, University of Iowa, Iowa, IA, USA

D. Cattaneo, Luigi Sacco University Hospital, Milan, Italy

G. Cherala, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, VA, USA

P.G. Cojutti, University of Udine, Udine, Italy

R.P. Dash, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

R. Giusti, Sant'Andrea Hospital of Rome, Rome, Italy

C. Guillén-Ponce, Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal, Madrid, Spain

Y. K. Gupta, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

H. P. Hartung, Heinrich-Heine University, Dusseldorf, Germany

C. Höcht, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

F. Jamali, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

T.K.L. Kiang, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

M.J. McKeage, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

S. Mercadante, La Maddalena Cancer Center, Palermo, Italy

S. Misaka, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Japan

P. J. Nathan, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

J. Niu, FDA*, Silver Spring, MD, USA

B.M. Patel, Nirma University, Ahmedabad, India

S. Perez-Lloret, Institute for Cardiology Research, National Research Council (ININCA-UBA-CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina

M. Pfister, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

G. Remington, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

H. Schütz, BEBAC Consulting, Vienna, Austria

Y. Saisho, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

M. H. Shishehbor, Cleveland Clinic Cardiovascular Disease, Cleveland, OH, USA

L.P. Shulman, Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA

G. Singhania, CHI St. Vincent Infirmary, Little Rock, AK, USA

L. Tóthfalusi, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary

J. Weiss, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

S. Yamada, Diabetes Center, Kitasato Institute Hospital, Tokyo, Japan

*Dr Niu is serving in her personal capacity

The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the importance of rapid and wide dissemination of high-quality information. Springer Nature is supporting the global response to COVID-19 by making all relevant content immediately and freely available.

The high quality of the content published in Drugs in R&D has been reflected in the most recent impact factor of 2.277. This places the journal in the second quartile of the pharmacology and pharmacy category. The journal also achieved a Citescore of 4.2, placing it at position 124/301 in the pharmacology category.

In 2021, Drugs in R&D will continue to provide you with high interest, clinically relevant content in the field of pharmacology. I thank you for your continued support.


With best wishes,

Anton van Rensburg

Editor-in-Chief