The European Respiratory Journal 2026: towards the golden age of respiratory science?

Extract Welcome to our New Year editorial for 2026! What a time to be working in respiratory medicine and science! Your editors cannot remember a period of more rapid development in our field. Objectively, more new drugs have been approved by regulators for respiratory indications in 2025 that at any time in history, with a notable acceleration overall since 2020. New treatments in 2025 include those for diseases such as COPD (e.g. mepolizumab), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis/progressive pulmonary fibrosis (e.g. nerandomilast), bronchiectasis (e.g. brensocatib), asthma (e.g. depemokimab) and respiratory syncytial virus (e.g. clesrovimab), as well as extraordinary developments for multiple approved therapies in areas such as pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary hypertension-associated interstitial lung disease (ILD) (e.g. inhaled treprostinil and sotatercept), cystic fibrosis (e.g. vanzacaftor/tezacaftor/deutivacaftor) and lung cancer (e.g. telisotuzumab, taletrectinib, datopotamab deruxtecan, sunvozertinib, zongertinib and sevabertinib) [1]. Respiratory translational science has never been healthier or more in the public eye. Practice is changing and respiratory guidelines are stronger, more impactful and greater in number than ever before. This is an exciting time for a respiratory-focused scientific journal.