Novartis drags peers down with triple asset stumble

News Business Novartis drags peers down with triple asset stumble September 11, 2026 | 1 min read | Annalee Armstrong Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Email Print Novartis’ shares fell 13% this week after the report of three separate late-stage asset failures. The impact went beyond the Swiss drugmaker, dragging peers down across the market. Novartis is the sixth largest pharmaceutical company by market cap with a valuation of $212.2 billion, so it takes a lot to knock down an entity like that.

But the failures of three different late-stage assets did a number on the Swiss drugmaker’s shares this week.First up, the antibody-oligonucleotide conjugate del-desiran failed a Phase 3 trial in myotonic dystrophy type 1. The therapy failed to improve hand opening time in the 160 enrolled patients. This was a blow for the drug—and patients with the rare genetic disorder—but also for Novartis’ $12 billion acquisition of Avidity Biosciences that provided the asset last year.Then, the antisense therapy pelacarsen did not show a significant benefit on cardiovascular risk in patients during a late-stage trial.

The drug did lower levels of lipoprotein(a); however, the cardiovascular risk was the main goal of the test, indicating a failure.Finally, Novartis paused a clutch of Phase 2 trials for the CAR T cell therapy rapcabtagene autoleucel after three patient deaths. Novartis’ shares have fallen more than 13% this week in response to the failures and trial pauseswhich call into question the pharma’s entire growth pipeline. Novartis’ problems have caused a ripple across the pharma sector, according to analysts at Dow Jones.Amgen, which is the eighth largest pharma by market cap, fell sharply this week as well, since the company’s olpasiran is being tested in the same disease space as pelacarsen.

Amgen’s asset, however, is an siRNA therapy.Eli Lilly, worth an eye-watering trillion dollars, is also in the lipoprotein(a)-lowering game with the siRNA therapy lepodisiran, and is also down slightly this week. Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Email Print Phase 3 Cardiovascular disease C-suite Rare diseases Clinical research Novartis Annalee Armstrong Annalee Armstrong is an award-winning biopharma journalist covering the business of drug development. She has been a journalist for more than 18 years, covering the pharmaceutical and biotech industry for the last eight.

She is senior editor at BioSpace and curates the Biopharm Executive newsletter every Wednesday. You can reach her at annalee.armstrong@biospace.com. Follow her on LinkedIn.