Novo Nordisk shares dive after heart medicine fails trial, dealing another blow toits pipeline

Shares of Novo Nordisk fell as much as 10% on Friday after the drugmaker said a late-stage heart drug trial failed to reduce major adverse cardiovascular events, or MACE, compared to a placebo.While the experimental medicine, ziltivekimab, did show some biological effect, it didn't translate into a statistically meaningful reduction in MACE, defined as cardiovascular death, non-fatal heart attack or non-fatal stroke, for patients with certain diseases, Novo said in a statement on Friday."While ziltivekimab did not achieve the MACE benefit we had hoped for, this does not change our strategic commitment to cardiovascular disease," chief scientific officer Martin Holst Lange said.Copenhagen-listed shares were last seen down 7.4% while its American depositary receipts were 8.6% lower in premarket trading, on track for their worst day since February when the company released disappointing results from a head-to-head trial of its next-generation weight-loss drug CagriSema versus Eli Lilly's rival medicine. If losses hold, shares will turn negative for the year.The missed endpoint is the latest blow to the Danish drugmaker, which is racing to restore investor confidence in its pipeline an...