By every measure, the drugs were no better than placebos, full data revealed on Saturday. Was it the fault of the design of the studies, or our very hypotheses about heart disease?
The results have sent shockwaves through the medical community, raising fundamental questions about how cardiovascular treatments are developed and tested. Researchers are now scrambling to understand why two promising compounds failed so spectacularly in late-stage clinical trials.
Some experts argue that the study designs may have been flawed, while others suggest our understanding of heart disease mechanisms might be incomplete. The pharmaceutical companies involved have not yet commented publicly on the failures.
Source: New York Times Business · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing