Breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer, but despite its wide-reaching impact, the number of deaths caused by the condition has fallen by almost 50% since the 1980s, according to Cancer Research UK. We take a look at how breast cancer oncology has developed over the past three decades. Plus, we investigate the decision to restricting PrEP access to a small pool of patients in the NHS England Impact Trial even though the same medication is freely available elsewhere in the UK.

In other news, we debate the viability of Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg’s plan to tax Big Pharma, examine prominent issues patients face when undergoing endometriosis treatments, and track the rise of fake medicines in Africa as well as the organisations working to put a stop to the counterfeit drug trade.

Also, we explore the potential of off-the-shelf CAR-T therapies, review Nobel Prize-winning research into the ways that cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability, and find out why pharma industry bigwigs are pulling out all the stops to gain access to China’s pharma market.

Eloise McLennan, editor