Amgen Falls 10% as Novartis Trial Failure Clouds a Cholesterol Drug Class; NVS Stock Drops 14%

Amgen Falls 10% as Novartis Trial Failure Clouds a Cholesterol Drug Class; NVS Stock Drops 14% David Moadel Wed, September 9, 2026 at 2:08 AM GMT+9 6 min read AMGN -9.38% LLY -1.96% NVS -14.04% NVS -14.04% ^GSPC -0.34% Quick Read Novartis's pelacarsen miss sent Amgen down 10% and Eli Lilly down 2%, punishing the entire Lp(a) drug class for one competitor's failed trial.

SPY fell just 0.37% while pharma names cratered, confirming markets are repricing Lp(a) pipeline risk sectorwide rather than reacting to broad economic weakness.

Citi analysts warn the Lp(a) hypothesis itself may be flawed, leaving Amgen's Olpasiran in Phase 3 OCEAN(a)-Outcomes as the most exposed pipeline asset.

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A failed cholesterol trial from Novartis (NYSE:NVS) is dragging the Lp(a) drug class lower and hitting Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) harder than any large-cap peer in Tuesday trading. The selloff is unfolding even as Amgen posted a positive Phase 3 readout of its own in small cell lung cancer, an unusual split that captures how brutally the market can price competitor risk in biotech.

Amgen stock is down 10% to $394.38 at midday, interrupting a gain of 23% year to date (YTD) heading into the session. The move carries added weight because Amgen holds the fourth-largest position in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, so today's decline pressures that index alongside health care specifically.

Meanwhile, Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) shares are down 2% to $1,124.77 on read-through concerns about its own Lp(a) program. As for Novartis stock, it's tumbling 14% to $137.63 on Tuesday afternoon. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) is down 0.37%, so today's pharma-sector pain isn't washing across the broad tape. That gap between the biotech names and the benchmark tells you the market is pricing pipeline risk at the sector level.

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Novartis said last Thursday that pelacarsen, an experimental heart drug developed with Ionis Pharmaceuticals, failed to reduce cardiovascular risk in a late-stage trial. The Novartis 8,323-patient Phase III study lowered Lp(a) levels while missing its primary composite endpoint covering cardiovascular death, non-fatal heart attack, non-fatal stroke, and urgent coronary revascularization.

Citi analysts said the Lp(a) hypothesis has been weakened, with additional data needed to establish whether the shortfall came from the drug's mechanism, the trial's design, or the underlying idea that lowering Lp(a) reduces cardiovascular risk. Amgen and Eli Lilly are both developing Lp(a)-lowering therapies using different technical approaches, so a class-defining failure at a rival forces investors to reweight the odds on every remaining program.

Here's the wrinkle the market is missing. Amgen also announced this morning that its Phase 3 DeLLphi-305 study met its primary endpoint, showing a statistically significant improvement in overall survival for IMDELLTRA. AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) partly funded the study and supplied Imfinzi, the comparator in the trial.

Amgen's IMDELLTRA-plus-Imfinzi regimen is being studied as a first-line maintenance treatment in extensive stage small cell lung cancer, one of the toughest settings in oncology. The readout arrived with hard survival data, an endpoint that carries commercial weight immediately, while a mechanistic Lp(a) result needs another round of confirmation.

Amgen's cholesterol franchise still matters here. Repatha, its PCSK9 inhibitor, generated Q1 2026 revenue of $876 million on 34% year over year (YoY) growth and 35% volume growth, making it one of Amgen's fastest-growing brands. Its longer-dated Lp(a) bet, Olpasiran, sits in the Phase 3 OCEAN(a)-Outcomes cardiovascular outcomes trial, and it's now the pipeline asset most exposed to today's class re-rating, according to Amgen.

The Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEARCA:XLV) carries Amgen and Eli Lilly as major holdings. A same-day selloff in both names weighs on the fund, even though Novartis isn't a listed component of the ETF.

The gap between the size of Amgen stock's decline and the modest moves elsewhere shows the market is treating today as a program-level revaluation for the Lp(a) class. Amgen's YTD anchor is included because the interrupted rally frames the setback in the context of what had been a strong year.

Amgen stock is being punished for a competitor's failed trial on the same morning its own trial succeeded, and holding both facts at once is the whole exercise. A pipeline is priced on expected approvals, and the pelacarsen miss lowers the odds on the Olpasiran program Amgen has invested years in. The DeLLphi-305 readout, however, sits closer to commercialization and delivered concrete survival data.

Eli Lilly stock's shallower decline is a reminder that these are different molecules at different stages, and a class-wide selloff prices them as if they were the same bet. Lilly's VERVE-102 base editor showed a single dose reduced PCSK9 by up to 88% and LDL-C by up to 62% with durable effects, a mechanism distinct from pelacarsen's antisense approach. Whether that mechanistic distance ultimately shields Lilly's cardiovascular program depends on how the Lp(a) hypothesis holds up in the next set of trial readouts across the industry.

Investors sizing their exposure to large-cap pharma may want to keep their positions moderate until follow-up commentary lands from cardiology leaders, since the distinction between a failed drug and a failed idea can't be settled from a single topline result. Moreover, traders can watch for Amgen's presentation at the 2026 Wells Fargo Healthcare Conference as the next scheduled catalyst that could reframe the Lp(a) narrative.

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