Amgen Plunges 10% as Novartis Lp(a) Trial Failure Casts Doubt on Olpasiran Program

Amgen shares fell roughly 10% on Tuesday, putting the stock on course for its worst single-day decline since 2000, after Novartis reported that its Lp(a)-lowering drug pelacarsen failed in a final-stage cardiovascular trial. The read-through hit Amgen directly because the company is developing olpasiran, its own Lp(a)-targeting therapy, and investors now question whether lowering Lp(a) levels translates into fewer heart attacks and strokes, which is the central premise behind the entire drug class. Novartis shares fell 14%, and Ionis Pharmaceuticals, another participant in the Lp(a) space, dropped 10% as well. BMO downgraded Amgen in the wake of the news.

The selloff made Amgen the single largest drag on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which fell 628 points on the day as oil simultaneously climbed toward $100 a barrel following Houthi attacks on Saudi infrastructure. Amgen options activity surged, with 24,919 contracts trading by midday, representing roughly 2.5 million equivalent shares. Eli Lilly, which also has an Lp(a) program, faced similar scrutiny, and analysts warned that the Novartis failure raises the stakes for every company competing in what had been viewed as a multibillion-dollar cardiovascular opportunity.

In a separate and more positive development for Amgen, AstraZeneca reported that its cancer drug Imfinzi combined with Amgen's targeted immunotherapy Imdelltra significantly improved overall survival in a late-stage trial for first-line extensive-stage small cell lung cancer, meeting the study's primary endpoint. That result did little to offset the broader selloff in Amgen shares on the day.