Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk said on Thursday it had prematurely halted two additional clinical trials of its experimental cardiovascular drug ziltivekimab in heart failure patients, a further setback for the company's efforts to diversify beyond its flagship obesity and diabetes treatments. In July, the company announced that ziltivekimab failed to reduce the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events, including death, non-fatal heart attacks, and non-fatal strokes, compared with placebo. A spokesperson said the trials were stopped after an independent data monitoring committee determined that neither trial was "unlikely" to produce results different from the earlier failed study. Meanwhile, another trial of ziltivekimab in patients recovering from heart attacks will continue as planned, with results expected in the first half of 2027. Swiss rival Novartis also failed to reduce the risk of death, heart attacks, and strokes with its cardiovascular drug in late-stage trials. This has raised new questions about the hypothesis underlying the development of both drugs, that inflammation drives cardiovascular disease.
Novo Nordisk A/SNovo Nordisk halts two more ziltivekimab trials due to lack of efficacy, a setback for its cardiovascular drug pipeline.
Novartis AGNovartis's cardiovascular drug also failed in late-stage trials, raising questions about the inflammation hypothesis, indirectly affecting its pipeline.
