No­var­tis scut­tles tri­al for pro­gram laud­ed by Vas Narasimhan as emerg­ing trans­plant drug star

A pro­gram tout­ed by No­var­tis CEO Vas Narasimhan as a near-slam dunk has flopped a Phase IIb study, lead­ing the Swiss bio­phar­ma to dis­con­tin­ue the tri­al al­to­geth­er.

The can­di­date in ques­tion, is­cal­imab or CFZ533, proved less ef­fec­tive than stan­dard of care in pre­vent­ing or­gan re­jec­tion af­ter kid­ney trans­plants, No­var­tis an­nounced Fri­day morn­ing. Narasimhan had high­light­ed is­cal­imab in No­var­tis’ year­ly R&D pre­sen­ta­tion last No­vem­ber as a po­ten­tial mid-stage star, af­ter tap­ping it a year ear­li­er in De­cem­ber 2019 as an emerg­ing star.

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