Methodological and technological advances in safety pharmacology - New or simply nuanced?

This editorial previews and summarizes the content of the current themed issue of J Pharm Tox Methods derived from the recent 2018 Annual Safety Pharmacology Society (SPS) meeting held in Washington, DC. The papers highlight improvements in methods and study endpoints used in non-clinical safety pharmacology (SP) to enhance clinical translatability. Articles cover areas including the SP assessment of oligonucleotides and gene therapy, core battery clinical translation case studies, next generation non-opiate pain management strategy, aspects of cardio-oncology that extend the traditional objectives of an SP assessment, real-world advanced imaging techniques used in preclinical safety, in silico approaches including mathematical modeling, machine learning, and bioinformatics and how secondary SP studies impact clinical trial interpretation and design. The meeting included scientific content from >190 abstracts (reproduced in the current volume of J Pharm Tox Methods).