Safety Pharmacology: Achieving a quarter century milestone as a scientific discipline

This editorial prefaces the annual themed issue on those methods with application to safety pharmacology (SP) in the Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods (JPTM). Highlighted content is derived from the 2024 Safety Pharmacology Society (SPS) meeting held in San Diego, CA, USA. The meeting showcased 122 posters, many of which are reproduced as abstracts published in JPTM. The manuscripts predominantly reflect updates to core battery safety evaluation and data analysis methods and include areas of novel investigation within SP. The results from several surveys including an updated salary survey by the SPS, current industry practices on neurotoxicity by the ACT, SPS and STP and results on the need to revisit the ICH S7A guidance on safety and secondary pharmacology by EFPIA, JPMA, and PhRMA provide timely updates. Other manuscripts include in vitro assessment methods for sodium channel block using MEA arrays, and a comparison of the in vitro effects of positive control drugs on the hERG channel current using different testing procedures. In vivo cardiovascular manuscripts include an overview of surgical telemetry implantation methods, utility of automated blood sampling methods in SP studies, evaluation of the performance characteristics for common QTc data collection methods, and an evaluation of a clinically used wearable ECG device for use in SP studies. There is also an overview of the impact of respiratory SP and a comprehensive review and comparison of current practices regarding methodological approaches used to acquire CV data in repeat-dose non-rodent toxicology studies. The 21 years of consecutive themed issues on SP methods attends to the importance of methods evaluation and the contribution of SP to the process of methods evaluation.