Emerging drugs for coronary artery disease. From past achievements and current needs to clinical promises

INTRODUCTION: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide, exerting a huge economic burden. Although drug treatment in the past decades has made large advances, significant residual risk remains. However, in the coming years, there are still a lot of great advances and major breakthroughs expected. AREAS COVERED: New treatments are expected to provide higher efficacy with favorable safety profiles. In this review article, we provide an almost complete overview of the recent and emerging drug therapies of CAD. This includes: drugs for the treatment of atherogenic dyslipidemia, drugs that stabilize atherosclerotic plaques and halt their progression guided by novel anti-inflammatory concepts in atherosclerosis treatment, anti-anginal treatments, renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitors, antiplatelet and anticoagulant drugs. EXPERT OPINION: Efforts have been made to improve the clinical effectiveness and safety of established treatment strategies and target new frontiers through developing novel treatment strategies that tackle different mechanisms of action. Better understanding of the different molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying CAD has resulted in more innovations and achievements in CAD drug therapy, and still a lot more is anticipated in the coming years.