The European Society of Cardiology working group on cardiovascular pharmacotherapy

Created in the 1980s, the ESC Working Group on Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy (WG-CVP) has gone from strength to strength for over four decades now. Covering the whole spectrum of cardiovascular disease, the WG-CVP has been—and continues to be—actively involved in all aspects of cardiovascular pharmacology and pharmacotherapy, from basic and clinical pharmacology to basic research and clinical trials. With over 550 members (27% women, 73% men) from different countries worldwide (Figure 1), the WG-CVP promotes and helps disseminate the most recent advances in pharmacotherapy, supports research dealing with precision dosing and personalized treatments, and produces educational programmes that contribute to the professional development of physicians worldwide. WG-CVP membership characteristics The current team leading the WG-CVP includes Prof. Juan Carlos Kaski (UK), Chairperson; Prof. Dobromir Dobrev (Germany), Chairperson-elect; Prof. Alexander Niessner (Austria), past Chairman; Prof. Claudio Ceconi (Italy), Treasurer; Prof. Anne Grete Semb (Norway), Secretary; and Prof. Bianca Rocca (Italy), Communications Coordinator. The newly elected (2022–24) nucleus comprises basic scientists working in the field of pharmacology; clinical investigators with an interest in different aspects of cardiovascular pharmacotherapy; and clinical and interventional cardiologists, all with strong translational focus. Women represent 25% of the nucleus and men 75%, all offering diverse and complementary expertise (Table 1). 2022–2024 nucleus and advisors of the ESC WG-CVP Pharmacotherapy is vital for patient management: effective pharmacological intervention is required across the whole spectrum of cardiovascular disease. The field is undergoing important transformative changes which require both a rethinking of clinical treatment strategies and a reformulation of research protocols, as well as strict cost-efficiency considerations. Current clinical challenges include increased preclinical and clinical pharmacological research costs, global reduction of available resources, strong competition for human resources—particularly in industrialized regions—as well as increasing risk factors for cardiovascular and coronary artery diseases: e.g. obesity and diabetes. In addition to these concerns, to which we need to adapt, there are also exciting opportunities. Digital health and in silico technology, as well as modern drug discovery techniques, have brought welcome changes to research and drug development, generating streamlined regulatory paths for drug approval. These have been further accelerated by the overwhelming challenges triggered by the recent SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Pharmacogenetics and precision drug dosing, in the context of personalized medicine, are also rapidly growing fields that should help optimize the balance between drug efficacy and drug safety in the most complex clinical settings. Aware of these challenges and opportunities, the WG-CVP has developed strategies to provide both trainees and established practitioners with essential information, as well as educational programmes and a variety of research tools. Some of these include as follows: 1. Educational programmes (both online and face-to-face)—Education and training are key goals of the WG. Three annual courses have featured prominently in the past few years, ‘All About Clinical Trials’, which addresses issues related to the design and statistical assessment of pharmacotherapy clinical trials, along with data interpretation and good medical practice (i.e. Drexel H et al. Eur Heart J Cardiovasc Pharmacother. 2020; 6:97–103.—Drexel H et al. Eur Heart J Cardiovasc Pharmacother. 2021;7:453–459.—Drexel H et al. Eur Heart J Cardiovasc Pharmacother 2022;8: 302–310.) and ‘Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy in Women’ and ‘Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy in Older Persons’, which both deal with pharmacological treatments for these specific groups. In addition, a new webinar series (led by Dr Patrick Sulzgruber) and an annual series of brief communications dealing with newly approved pharmacological agents (led by Prof. Juan Tamargo) have been devised to keep pace with the rapid evolution of the cardiovascular pharmacotherapy field. Importantly, the WG has also created a ‘Pharmacogenomics’ section (led by Dr Emma Magavern) to deal with advances in this rapidly growing area. ‘Master on Clinical Trials’ (Prof. Basil S. Lewis, coordinator) is a major educational initiative developed in association with the University of Oxford (UK) which attracts international students with an interest in the different aspects of clinical trial design, statistical analysis, and data interpretation. 2. Annual scientific sessions of the WG: EuroCVP—This annual meeting offers a wealth of opportunities that include an exhaustive update on recent research studies and clinical trials, engaging research exchanges, and collaboration among trainees, established practitioners, and researchers, as well as a forum for discussions on recent advances in the field and networking opportunities. In 2023, EuroCVP will take place from 2–4 November in Florence, Italy. 3. Publications: European Heart Journal – Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy (EHJ-CVP)—The EHJ-CVP, the official journal of the WG-CVP, publishes original clinical and basic research articles, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, insightful expert viewpoints, and position papers which fill current knowledge gaps and deal with major unmet therapeutic needs.1–10 The EHJ-CVP (Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Stefan Agewall) is a member of the European Heart Journal family. With an Impact Factor of 11.177, it ranks among the top 10% of pharmacology journals, and 15th out of 143 cardiovascular journals (https://academic.oup.com/ehjcvp) worldwide. 4. ESC Handbook on Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy (Prof. K.P. Kjeldsen and Prof. J.C. Kaski, Editors)—Developed by experts from the ESC WG-CVP, the handbook is regularly updated and aligned with the ESC Clinical Practice Guidelines for Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy. It contains a comprehensive ‘A to Z’ formulary of common and less commonly used cardiac drugs and drug groups. 5. Contribution to several ESC task forces, committees, and regulatory bodies including, among others, ESC Clinical Practice Guidelines and the annual ESC Congress—the WG-CVP contributes expertise in the area of basic and clinical cardiovascular pharmacotherapy. Albeit extremely proud of the achievements of the WG-CVP over the past years, we are conscious of the magnitude of the task ahead to help healthcare practitioners meet present and future challenges and are fully committed and determined to continue the work in pursuit of our goals. The journey ahead promises to be extremely exciting: we extend an invitation to all our colleagues worldwide who have an interest in cardiovascular pharmacotherapy to join the WG-CVP and assist us in creating educational programmes, as well as to contribute to our clinical and research endeavours. All authors declare no conflict of interest for this contribution.

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