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# A Heart Drug Failed Its Trial — But the Investor Who Bet on It Says It's Fine
- URL: https://www.pennystocks.news/nvs-a-heart-drug-failed-its-trial-but-the-investor-who-bet-o/
- Published: 2026-09-05T13:00:34.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-05T13:00:34.000Z
- Description: Royalty Pharma put $150 million on pelacarsen and $350 million on a safer bet. The safer bet is the one that matters now.
- Author: PennyStocksNews Team
- Tags: nasdaq, ticker-nvs

The trial failed. Novartis's drug pelacarsen, studied in patients with high levels of a blood protein linked to heart disease, did not reduce cardiovascular events compared to placebo. The investor that had **put $150 million on it** says the deal will still make money.

Novartis AG NYSE: NVS 

That investor is Royalty Pharma, which in January 2023 put **$500 million into a funding deal with Ionis Pharmaceuticals**. The structure of that deal is why Royalty Pharma is not calling it a disaster. Only $150 million rode on pelacarsen. The remaining **$350 million bought royalties on Spinraza**, a treatment for spinal muscular atrophy — and the Spinraza money keeps flowing regardless of what happened in the HORIZON cardiovascular trial.

Under the terms of the deal, Royalty Pharma holds 25% of Ionis' Spinraza royalty stream through 2027, rising to 45% from 2028\. The arrangement ends once **royalty payments reach $550 million**, which Royalty Pharma says represents **a 1.1x return on the total amount funded**. Because the trial failed, the company also confirmed it will make no further milestone payments to Ionis.

Novartis shares closed 1.90% lower at $159.99 on September 5, on dollar volume of about $203 million.

Novartis said it plans to present the full HORIZON data at an upcoming medical congress, according to its September 4 press release. That release noted pelacarsen did lower lipoprotein(a) — the blood protein the drug was designed to target — among participants already receiving standard heart disease treatments. The drug lowered the protein. It just could not turn that into fewer deaths or hospitalisations.