Investors reassess related drug programs even though the selloff does not reflect new clinical results from either company.
Novartis shares fell 12% to 13% Tuesday after the company disclosed late-stage failures for two closely watched experimental drugs: pelacarsen, aimed at lowering lipoprotein(a), a genetically driven cardiovascular risk factor, and del-desiran, an RNA-targeted therapy. The selloff put renewed attention on the value investors had assigned to its development pipeline.
The failures rippled beyond Novartis itself. Dyne Therapeutics, whose own RNA-based therapeutic platform sits in the same broad scientific territory, fell 22% the same day, even though nothing in Novartis's disclosure directly implicates Dyne's own clinical data. Amgen fell 8% and was downgraded to Market Perform by BMO Capital Markets, a read-through reaction tied to Amgen's own work in the Lp(a) space rather than to any new data on Amgen's specific drug candidates.
A market reaction, not new trial data
The reaction shows how one company’s clinical setbacks can affect valuations across related research areas. It does not establish that Dyne’s technology or Amgen’s candidates will produce the same outcomes. Differences in mechanism, trial design and patient populations matter, and each program must be assessed on its own evidence.
Whether that inference holds up will depend on what each company says about its own program in the weeks ahead, and on whether any of them offer data or commentary that either reinforces or breaks the read-through the market drew on Tuesday.