Two large cardiovascular drug programs from two of the world's biggest drugmakers came apart within weeks of each other. Novartis said on September 4 that pelacarsen missed its primary goal in a Phase 3 trial that ran for about seven years. Three days later, trade press reported that Novo Nordisk had halted two more late-stage trials of ziltivekimab after an independent data monitoring committee concluded they were unlikely to reach a different result than an earlier study that had already failed.
The two drugs tested different ideas about what drives heart attacks and strokes. That is why the pair of failures landed harder together than either would have alone.
