digesta
Just signalNo noise

← Back to feed

Two Heart Drugs Fail in Trials, Dashed Hopes

–

Neutral summary

Results from clinical trials of two experimental heart drugs — Novartis’ pelacarsen and Novo Nordisk’s ziltivekimab — were presented at the American Heart Association (AHA) conference. Both drugs effectively lowered their target markers but did not reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke compared with placebo. Pelacarsen lowered levels of lipoprotein(a), a genetic risk factor for cardiovascular disease, but showed no measurable impact on heart attacks or strokes. Ziltivekimab lowered levels of interleukin-6 but also did not reduce cardiovascular event rates. The ZEUS trial, a global phase 3 study, was led by Mass General Brigham researcher Paul Ridker. Cardiologists said the negative results do not invalidate the role of inflammation in cardiovascular disease, but they raise questions about previous hypotheses. Currently, no treatments exist for patients with elevated lipoprotein(a) levels.

How it was framed

Outlets: 6. Countries: 3. Facts in the shared core: 2.

Publication timeline

  1. · STAT News (outlet profile)

    STAT+: Despite Novo drug’s failure, cardiologists say they will still pursue anti-inflammatories. “These results, the fact that they're negative, does not invalidate that inflammation plays a very important role in card…

  2. · Medical Xpress (outlet profile)

    Heart researchers unpack neutral findings from ZEUS, an anti-inflammatory clinical trial. Like cholesterol, inflammation causally contributes to the risk of cardiovascular disease, but findings from the clinical trial Z…

  3. · STAT News (outlet profile)

    STAT+: Failure of Novartis Lp(a) drug raises questions about cardiovascular strategy. Medical mystery at the AHA conference: A Novartis drug lowered a risk marker for cardiovascular disease but did not lower chance of h…

  4. · NBC News (outlet profile)

    The ‘slam dunk’ that wasn’t: Promising cholesterol drug fails to prevent heart attacks or stroke. An experimental drug that held great promise in driving down a dangerous form of cholesterol didn’t show any measurable i…

  5. · El Mundo (outlet profile)

    Duro revés a la investigación frente a la lipoproteína (a): su reducción no evita el riesgo de sufrir problemas cardiovasculares. Los resultados de fase III con pelacarsen suponen un jarro de agua fría a la hipótesis se…

  6. · The New York Times (outlet profile)

    How Cardiologists’ High Hopes for Two Drugs Were Dashed. By every measure, the drugs were no better than placebos, full data revealed on Saturday. Was it the fault of the design of the studies, or our very hypotheses ab…

  7. · El Economista (outlet profile)

    Fracaso en ensayos clínicos de fármacos para el corazón de Novartis y Novo Nordisk siembran dudas. Actualmente, no existen tratamientos para los pacientes con niveles elevados de Lp(a), un factor de riesgo genético de e…

Factual core

  • An experimental cholesterol drug failed to prevent heart attacks or stroke in a clinical trial.
  • The drug had been considered highly promising before the trial.

Full methodology →

Other stories of the day