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SUN, 8 NOV · 81 ITEMS
NPR News, Swissinfo, The Straits Times + 2 more · Science & Medicine
5 outletsNovartis is scrapping its experimental heart drug after a massive seven-year, 8,300-patient trial failed to show it could prevent heart attacks, strokes, or deaths. The drug was designed to lower lipoprotein(a), or Lp(a)—a fatty particle largely determined by genetics that strongly predicts heart disease risk. The failure is a major blow to Novartis and casts doubt on the entire strategy of lowering Lp(a) to improve cardiovascular outcomes, leaving rivals like Amgen and Eli Lilly to try to prove the approach works.
The claim is well-supported by multiple reputable secondary outlets (NPR, Reuters, Bloomberg, STAT News) reporting on the same primary source: the results for pelacarsen, likely presented at a medical conference or released by Novartis. The consistency across these independent reports, combined with the specific trial details (8,322 patients, seven years), makes the core fact of the drug's failure and abandonment very solid.
The abandonment is genuinely new as of November 7, 2026, following the initial trial failure first reported in September 2026.
We covered the initial failure of this drug in September 2026, when it missed its key goal in a pivotal study, and Novartis stopped two heart trials.