Product Development

Recent Phase III disappointment aside, the heart failure pipeline holds plenty to look forward to 

Drug development for heart failure is picking up, with five clinical readouts from five mechansims expected in the next year

An analysis of the heart failure pipeline indicates the pace of drug development is picking up, with five readouts from five different targets are expected in the next 12 months.

The most recent Phase III data from a heart failure candidate may have been underwhelming, but a look at the broader pipeline suggests the long period of drought in innovation could soon give way to a series of new MOAs.  

The heart failure pipeline contains at least 18 clinical-stage programs with five readouts — all involving new mechanisms — expected over the next year. That’s on top of the two SGLT2 inhibitors that already demonstrated a benefit in Phase III in the past year.

The 2015 approval of Entresto sacubitril/valsartan from Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS; SIX:NOVN) for patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) marked the first new mechanism to enter the heart failure market in decades. 

Entresto was also first to show a cardiovascular benefit in heart failure patients, setting a benchmark with its 20% reduction in the risk of death or hospitalization due to heart failure.

Since then