Pelacarsen, Ziltivekimab Show 0 Benefit in Heart Trials After High Hopes
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Nov 7
Pelacarsen, Ziltivekimab Show 0 Benefit in Heart Trials After High Hopes
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Nov 7
Summary
Large clinical trials found pelacarsen and ziltivekimab were no better than placebos, with no sign of benefit in any patient group.
Months of speculation ended after preliminary failure notices left cardiologists hoping the drugs had at least narrowly missed significance or helped subgroups.
Novartis and Novo Nordisk had invested heavily in the treatments, which many doctors expected would open a new era in preventing heart disease.
The results dealt a broad setback to cardiovascular research, stunning specialists who had viewed both drugs as among the field’s most promising candidates.
Why did lowering a genetic heart disease marker by 80 percent fail to prevent actual heart attacks in massive clinical trials?
If reducing inflammation and biomarkers cannot stop cardiovascular disease, is medicine fundamentally misunderstanding how heart attacks actually occur?