The evolution of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction pharmacotherapy: What do we have and where are we going?

Cardiovascular diseases represent a leading cause of mortality and increased healthcare expenditure worldwide. Heart failure, which simply describes an inability of the heart to meet the body's needs, is the end point for many other cardiovascular conditions. The last three decades have witnessed significant efforts aiming at the discovery of treatments to improve the survival and quality of life of patients with heart failure; many were successful, while others failed. Given that most of the successes in treating heart failure were achieved in patients with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (HFrEF), we constructed this review to look at the recent evolution of HFrEF pharmacotherapy. We also explore some of the ongoing clinical trials for new drugs, and investigate potential treatment targets and pathways that might play a role in treating HFrEF in the future.