A Promising Heart Drug Fails, Challenging a Long-Held Theory of Disease

Novo Nordisk stunned the cardiology world last week when it announced that a large study it was running on an experimental drug for heart disease had failed. The drug, widely expected to be a blockbuster, was no better than a placebo.

The drug, ziltivekimab, reduces inflammation, which is generally thought to be a cause of atherosclerosis. Stopping that inflammation was hoped to be a way to save lives.

Now the drug’s failure is raising a troubling question. Is inflammation really a cause or is it just a marker of atherosclerosis, the way gray hair is a marker of aging?

Cardiologists had mixed reactions to the news. Dr. Sanjay Kaul, a cardiologist at Cedars Sinai, quoted Thomas Huxley on X: “The great tragedy of science — the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/06/science/heart-disease-drug-fails-novo-nordisk.html