Further ZEUS results presented on 7 November showed that ziltivekimab lowered inflammatory markers but did not reduce heart attacks, strokes or deaths compared with placebo.
Novo Nordisk’s experimental drug ziltivekimab lowered markers of inflammation in the ZEUS trial, but patients who received it did not have fewer heart attacks, strokes or deaths than those given a placebo, an inactive treatment.
The outcome had been disclosed briefly in July. Further results were presented on 7 November at the American Heart Association’s scientific sessions in Chicago and published at the same time in the New England Journal of Medicine, STAT said.
ZEUS was a phase 3 study, a late stage of drug testing, involving patients with established cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease and a high-sensitivity C-reactive protein level of at least 2 mg/L. That protein is a marker measured to assess inflammation.
Ziltivekimab is a monoclonal antibody, a laboratory-made protein, that targets and binds interleukin-6 (IL-6), a molecule involved in inflammatory signaling, preventing its interaction with the IL-6 receptor. In ZEUS, the drug reduced IL-6 levels. But a change in a marker does not necessarily predict whether a treatment will improve outcomes such as survival.
After the initial ZEUS disclosure, Novo Nordisk halted two other ziltivekimab trials, HERMES and ATHENA. A data monitoring committee had concluded in September that those trials were unlikely to succeed.
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