The European Respiratory Society Congress, held in Barcelona, included topics covering new therapeutic developments in the field of respiratory health and disease. This conference report highlights selected presentations on therapies targeting inflammatory cells, with a focus on therapeutic agents for asthma and COPD. This report also includes a discussion of novel therapeutic agents for pulmonary hypertension. Investigational drugs discussed include OC-000459 (Oxagen), SCH-527123 (Merck & Co), AZD-9668 (AstraZeneca), benralizumab (MedImmune/Kyowa Hakko Kirin/BioWa), PF-3429281 (Pfizer), vilanterol (GlaxoSmithKline/Theravance), LAS-100977 (Almirall Prodesfarma), selexipag (Nippon Shinyaku/Actelion) and GW-0742 (GlaxoSmithKline).