Amgen Stock Slumps on Novartis Trial Failure

Amgen's stock is down 4.7% in pre-market trading after Novartis announced that its drug pelacarsen failed to reduce cardiovascular risk in a Phase III trial.

The setback raises uncertainty for rival experimental Lp(a) drugs, including Amgen's own pipeline candidate olpasiran.

BMO Capital downgraded Amgen from Outperform to Market Perform and maintained a $450 price target, citing commercial execution as effectively priced in.

Analysts note that the failure weakens but does not disprove the scientific case for targeting Lp(a) cholesterol, which olpasiran may address with a different drug design.