[Recent examples for drug (developments) in primary, secondary and tertiary prevention]

The prevention of disease and the prevention of subsequent disease is one of the main themes in public health as well as in clinical medicine. Besides targeted interventions aiming at the total population (public health) individual steps like life style intervention and use of pharmacotherapy are important components. Taking acute myocardial infarction as an example it is illustrated, how risk factors can be targeted and which new drugs in development have been either just registered or are in late phase III of clinical testing shortly before registration and final approval. In this context it was shown that there are many exciting new options to reduce risk factors. On the other hand there are indications in which new drug development is likely not to contribute to an improvement of the situation (e. g. arterial hypertension) and in which further targeted intervention aiming at physicians (therapeutic pathways, guidelines, point of care research) and patients (life style intervention, compliance) has to be undertaken to improve the efficacy of currently available pharmacotherapy.