Safety pharmacology during the COVID pandemic

Pugsley, Michael K.; Koshman, Yevgeniya; de Korte, Tessa; Authier, Simon; Curtis, Michael J.

This editorial summarizes the content of the current themed issue of J Pharmacol Toxicol Methods derived from the 2020 Annual Safety Pharmacology Society (SPS) meeting that was held virtually September 14–17, 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic. A selection of articles arising from the virtual meeting is summarized. Like previous years they continue to reflect current areas of innovation in SP including new methodologies to predict human safety, best practices for IKr current measurement, and best practice considerations for the conduct of in vivo nonclinical QT studies. The meeting included scientific content from 94 abstracts (reproduced in the current volume of J Pharmacol Toxicol Methods). This continued innovation reflects a rubric in SP that identifies problems, seeks solutions and, importantly, validates the solutions.