The latter half of the 20th century has been characterized by pharmacologists as the 'age of the receptor', an era in which the bioassay, that stalwart of classical pharmacology, has played a seminal role in identifying novel cardiovascular medicines. In this article, we ask what, if anything, has changed in the pharmacologist's approach to discovering novel cardiovascular drugs on this, the 25th anniversary of the inaugural publication of Trends in Pharmacological Sciences.