Cardiologists say they will still pursue anti-inflammatory heart drugs after Novo Nordisk trial fails
Novo Nordisk’s experimental antibody ziltivekimab failed to cut serious heart events in the ZEUS trial, even though it lowered inflammatory markers, including the cytokine interleukin-6. The monoclonal antibody reduced two biomarkers of inflammation in patients with severe illness, but that did not produce fewer heart attacks, strokes, or deaths versus placebo. Top-line findings had already been sketched in July; after they were disclosed, Novo stopped two further studies of the same drug, HERMES and ATHENA, when a data monitoring committee concluded in September that those trials were unlikely to succeed. Fuller ZEUS data were presented on Saturday at the American Heart Association scientific sessions in Chicago and published at the same time in the New England Journal of Medicine. Uncontrolled inflammation is widely described as central to cardiovascular and metabolic disease, and cardiologists speaking to STAT argued that a negative outcome here does not erase that role or end the case for anti-inflammatory heart medicines. They said they still intend to pursue such approaches despite the miss.
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