Novartis' drug pelacarsen fails to reduce heart risks despite lowering harmful cholesterol Lp(a).

Novartis announced that its drug pelacarsen, designed to lower the harmful cholesterol Lp(a), failed to significantly reduce cardiovascular events in a late-stage trial. This setback raises doubts about the effectiveness of targeting Lp(a) to prevent heart attacks and strokes, affecting the outlook for rival drugs from Amgen and Eli Lilly. Analysts say the failure weakens but does not disprove the potential of Lp(a) treatments, with more data needed to understand the results fully. Novartis plans to present full trial results soon, while the market impact has lowered confidence in this drug class but left room for other approaches to succeed.